Southern opens season with pair of road losses

 
The Southern men’s basketball season got off to a bumpy start, suffering road losses to Iowa State and Nebraska over the weekend.
The Jaguars (0-2) fell 82-59 to Iowa State Friday, a team that reached the NCAA Tournament last season. The Cornhuskers did not show much hospitality two nights later, defeating Southern 66-55.
“To play against this kind of competition against seven footers and guys who are bigger and are very athletic,” Jaguars head coach Roman Banks said. “Its just hard to compete for 40 minutes, everything will have to go in your favor to stay in the basketball game with these guys”
The Jaguars are not certain when they will get frontcourt help in the presence of 6-foot-10 forward Brandon Moore. The Florida International transfer did not play over the weekend because of eligibility issues with the NCAA.
Moore, a New Orleans native, originally signed to play at Arkansas before transferring and graduating from FIU. He currently attends Southern as a graduate student, and has one more year of eligibility.
“We went in kind of undermanned. He’s the other big body that we thought we would have in for these games that would help us fight,” Banks said.
Southern continues its season-opening road trip this week, traveling to Laramie, Wyo., to participate in Wyoming’s Global Sports Hoops Showcase. The three-day round robin features the Jaguars, North Carolina Central, South Dakota and host Wyoming. Southern plays South Dakota Wednesday, NCCU Thursday and Wyoming Friday.
The Jaguars return to Louisiana for a Nov. 24 road game in New Orleans against Tulane before playing host to Champion Baptist College Dec. 1.
 
Iowa State 82, Southern 59
AMES, Iowa – The Jaguars led by as much as 11 points midway through the first half. But fell to Iowa State on Friday night in both teams’ season opener.
Percy Gibson led three Iowa State players with double-doubles by scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Derick Beltran had a game-high 26 points for Southern. Malcolm Miller added 10 points.
Javan Mitchell, a Louisiana-Lafayette transfer, had eight points but was fouled out with 7:18 left in the first half.
Iowa State remained perfect 18-0 against Southwestern Athletic Conference schools, last season the Cyclones escaped a near upset to Mississippi Valley State.
Senior transfer Will Clyburn had 16 points and 10 rebounds and freshman Georges Niang had 15 and 12 for the Cyclones, who shook off a rough start to win their 15th straight opener.
Korie Lucious, a transfer from Michigan State, shot 1 of 12 from the field with seven turnovers in his Iowa State debut. But a strong second half carried the Cyclones to a convincing victory.
 
Nebraska 66, Southern 55
LINCOLN, Neb. – Nebraska never trailed, opening up a 9-0 lead in the first five minutes en route to a 31-25 halftime lead. Brandon Ubel had 17 of his 21 points in the second half in Sunday’s win.
Beltran led Southern with 17 points, and Yondarius Johnson had 13.
Southern cut the lead to three on Beltran’s 3-pointer to open the second half. Then Ubel took over, scoring seven straight to put Nebraska up 38-28 with his three-point fplay with 17:35 remaining. Ubel had another three-point play on a layup that gave Nebraska a 16-point lead, its largest of the game, with 9:02 remaining.
Dylan Talley added 17 points and Ray Gallegos had 16 for Nebraska. Ubel also had 12 rebounds.
Mitchell fouled out again this time in the second half of the game.