South Alabama Sports Update 2009-09-18
Baseball
Due to wet field conditions South Alabama head baseball coach Steve Kittrell has been forced to postpone the start of fall practice until Sunday afternoon at the earliest. The Jags were expected to start their 45-day practice period Thursday afternoon. Kittrell made the decision to postpone due to NCAA rules that only allow 45 days for team workouts during the fall, and those begin with the teams first official practice.
Depending on the weather, the Jags may start practice on Sunday at 2pm.
Basketball
Men’s
The matchups have been announced for the second annual South Alabama Thanksgiving Classic. Coach Ronnie Arrow announced that Utah Valley, Georgia State and Alcorn State will play in the tournament on November 25 and 26 at the Mitchell Center.
Wednesday, Georgia State and Utah Valley will begin the tournament at 5pm followed by South Alabama and Alcorn State at 7pm. On Thursday, the consolation game will start at 2pm and the Championship game will begin at 4pm.
Women’s
Dr. Joel Erdmann, South Alabama’s Athletic Director, announced on Tuesday that Lady Jag coach Rick Pietri has received a contract extension through the 2013 season. Last season the Lady Jags finished 21-11, which is the first back to back 20-win season by the Lady Jags in 21 years. They also advanced to the semifinal round of the conference tournament for the first time since 2003 and only the second time since 1989.
On February 14th, Pietri grabbed his 150th career win at the collegiant level and ranks second in overall wins in South Alabama’s all-time coaching chart with 154 and ranks first in Sun Belt victories with 75.
Soccer
Kickoff of Friday’s soccer match between USA and Georgia State has been moved up from 6pm to 3:30pm due to a change in venue. Originally scheduled for a 6pm kickoff at GSU’s home field, they have moved to Atlanta Silverback’s Park due to unplayable conditions. Siverback’s Park has synthetic turf similar to USA’s football practice field.
Coach Varga was very grateful to head football coach Joey Jones for allowing the Soccer team to also use the football practice field to practice this week. He said, “We were very fortunate Coach Jones allowed us to practice on their field this week. I’m very grateful he allowed us that opportunity.”
Volleyball
This weekend will be the final tournament of the regular season for the Lady Jaguars before they begin their Sun Belt schedule. They are traveling to Prairie View A&M for the Lady Panther Invitational and will take on Nicholls State at 1pm on Friday then will take on Prairie View A&M and Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday.
Coach Arrow Announces Promotions Within His Staff
South Alabama’s head basketball coach has announced staff promotions and changes for the 2009-2010 season.
Former associate head coach Andy Helton left the program to accept the head coaching position at Eastern New Mexico earlier this year leaving the position open. So today Coach Arrow announced that assistant coach Chuck Taylor has been promoted to associate head coach and assistant coach Michael Floyd has been promoted to first assistant coach.
Taylor came to South Alabama in 2007 after serving a year at North Texas and winning the SBC tournament and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Prior to North Texas, Taylor was the head coach at Richland (Texas) Junior College where the Thunderducks was 24-8 under him.
Floyd is a Mobile native and was a two-year letterwinner at South Alabama under coach Arrow from 1994-1996. He was previously head coach at Alabama Southern Community College where his team went 18-12 in the 2005-2006 season. He then spent one season at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi with Coach Arrow and returned with him to Mobile in 2007.
Coach Arrow had the following to say about coaches Taylor and Floyd, “For what we’ve been able to accomplish as a program the last few years, I feel really good about promoting Chuck and Michael. They are not only good x’s-and-o’s coaches but they have been able to bring the players along and maximize their potential. Their efforts have been very much appreciated and noticed.”
The Jags will have an exhibition game against West Florida on November 5, tip-off time is yet to be determined. Then the season starts at Rice when they take on Houston Baptist on November 13 in the Rice Basketball Challenge. The Jags complete schedule can be found here.
Men’s Basketball Team Begins Individual Preseason Workouts
Its time to take a short break from all of the buzz around football to talk about basketball.
Head basketball coach Ronnie Arrow and his staff have started its preseason individual workouts. They will begin working two hours per week in preparation for the 2009-2010 season.
However there are alot of questions about this team that have yet to be answered and probably won’t be answered until the season starts. With the loss of DeAndre Coleman, Brandon Davis and Ronald Douglas to graduation and the transfer of DeAndrae Ross and C.J. Garner away from the program, it leave Coach Arrow with few experienced players.
Phillip Tabet, a senior, and Charles Tabet, redshirt Junior, have experience inside and are both letterwinners on the inside, but neither started a game last season. DeAndre Hersey redshirted last season. That leaves Bryan Sherrer and LaShun Watson, both seniors, as the only other experienced players left over from last season.
But Coach Arrow isn’t too worried. He said, “We will be bigger, quicker and better shooters on the outside than we were last year. LaShun Watson, Tim Williams and Martino Brock bring a lot of size and quickness to the wing.”
Coach Arrow has brought in a mixture of JC transfers and freshmen signees to fill out the ranks for the season, so its not like the Jaguars will be a group of inexperienced players. “The seniors have shown good leadership and have been able to share their knowledge in how to do the drills and what we expect of them,” Coach Arrow said. “The newcomers have put forth a good effort in learning the system.”
One of those newcomers that has put forth a good effort is Rob Phillips. He was a 2006 high school graduate that averaged 23.1 points per game, hitting 57% from 3-point range and 92% from the free-throw line at Charis Prep, one of the top prep schools in the country. He has a history of hard work off the court and leadership on the court. His outside shot will definitely benefit the Jaguars this season.
It will be interesting to see how the preseason workouts go and who Coach Arrow will replace long-time assistant Coach Andy Helton with.
Sports Round-Up For 2009-05-14
Football
Football keeps getting closer. With 113 days until kickoff of the first season in South Alabama history another small, yet historic mark creeps up upon us. Season ticket holders will begin choosing their seats at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Tuesday, May 19th. This process begins for 4,500 individuals who have already made the commitment for the 2009 season. The USA Ticket Sales Office is recommending that all season ticket holders select their seats over the phone. It can be done in person, however individuals who come to campus may experience a delay in choosing their location.
Baseball
Men’s Baseball has dropped their last four games, all at home. They dropped three over the weekend to FIU with scores of 1-9, 15-21 and 7-8. Then on Tuesday night they lost to Southern Miss at Stanky field, 5-7.
Starting tonight, the Jaguars, 11-15 in the SBC, have a three game home series against in state rival Troy to round out the regular season. These three games are crucial for the Jags because if they get swept then the Jags may not make it into the Sun Belt Conference Championship tournament in Troy.
So come out and help the Jags win some crucial games.
Softball
Unfortunately the Jaguars softball team were knocked out of the SBC tournament last week in Denton, Texas. The Jags beat #3 WKU in the first round but fell to #7 FAU in the second round to fall into the losers bracket where they lost the rematch with #3 WKU to be eliminated from the tournament. #1 seeded ULL lost their first round matchup with #8 ULM but ground out five consecutive wins to win the SBC Championship title.
USA Junior Beth Pilgrim became the first South Alabama softball player to be named to the Sun Belt Conference All-Tournament team for her performance at the SBC Championship last week. This is her third conference honor this year. She was previously named Pitcher of the Week on April 6th and second-team All-Conference on May 5th.
Basketball
Coach Arrow added two names to the list this week. USA announced Rob Phillips signed a national letter of intent to play at USA. He is a 6’2″ shooting guard who is currently attending Charis Prep School in Goldsboro, N.C. He averaged 23.1 points per game, 56.9% from 3-point range and 92% from the free throw line for Charis.
Also P.J. Reyes signed a National Letter-of-Intent to play for USA. Reyes is a 6’4″ wing from Lamar Community College in Lamar, CO. He will have two seasons of eligibility remaining. He started 33 games and averaged 20.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game while shooting 47%.
Tennis
As reported yesterday, the Men’s Tennis program was hit with the news that they were found guilty of major infractions on Tuesday by the NCAA.
The violations as stated by the NCAA include unethical conduct by the former head coach Scott Novak, the University’s failure to monitor, impermissible financial aid and loans, improper student-athlete certification and an impermissible decrease in athletic scholarships.
The penalties include placing the program on probation for three years, including a postseason ban in 2010, the loss of scholarships and the forfeiture of past wins and championships. The number of scholarships have been reduced from 4.5 to 2.72 per year through 2011. The full write-up about this can be found here.
South Alabama Sports Roundup – May 4th 2009
Coach Ronnie Arrow is looking for a new assistant coach as Andrew Helton has been named the new head coach at Eastern New Mexico University. He will be the 11th head coach in school history and inherits a team that went 4-23 last season.
Helton has been a member of Coach Arrow’s staff for the past eight seasons, the last two at USA helping to lead the Jaguars to two consecutive 20-win seasons. ENMU is a Division II school that plays in the Lone Star Conference. Us Jaguars wish him the best in his new position.
Coach Becky Clark and the Jaguar Softball team will go to Denton, Texas to make its second appearance in the Sun Belt Conference Championship. North Texas will host the SBC Championship from May 6th through May 9th. The Jaguars, 26-26-1 and 10-12 in the SBC clinched the #6 seed and will face #3 Western Kentucky (32-17 overall and 14-9 in the SBC) on Wednesday at 3pm.
The SBC Softball Championship matchups are: #1 Louisisana-Lafayette vs #8 Louisiana-Monroe, #2 Troy vs #7 Florida Atlantic, and #4 Florida International vs #5 North Texas.
The Jaguar Baseball team visited Tuscaloosa on Wednesday but could not come away with a second victory in a week agaist the Crimson Tide. They lost 14-3. Over the weekend the Jaguars travelted to Monroe, LA for a three game series against Louisiana-Monroe. The Jaguars got to play two of the three games with Sunday’s matchup being cancelled due to the weather. But the Jags came out on top in both games 12-9 and 11-9.
After five days off this week the Jaguars will have seven home games to conclude the season (unless the ULM game is rescheduled). Starting on Friday May 9th, Florida International will visit Stanky field for three games, then Southern Miss visits on Tuesday may 12th and then Troy comes to town for a three game series beginning on Thursday May 14th.
Currently the Jaguars sit at 23-23 overall for the season and 11-12 in the Sun Belt. The Jags are fifth in the Sun Belt standings 2 1/2 games behind Florida International and 7 1/2 game from first.
The Sun Belt Championship starts May 20th and will be in Troy, Alabama.
Coach Arrow has signed a pair of players for the Basketball team. Tim Williams from Pontiac, Michigan has signed a National Letter-of-Intent. He will be transferring from Motlow State CC in Lynchburg, Tennessee and will have two seasons of eligibility. He averaged 21.4 points per game, 8.1 rebounds and had a team high 55 3-pointers and 52 steals.
Raymond Sims is a 5′ 9″ guard from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He will be transfering from Paris Junior College in Paris, Texas and will have two seasons of eligibilty. He averaged 5.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game leading his team to a 25-6 record. Paris JC competes in one of the toughest Junior College leagues in the nation and has averaged 27.3 wins in the last two seasons and won a school record 30 games in the 07-08 season.
Previous signees include Augustine Rubit, Javier Carter and Andre Gowins. All three signed in November.
South Alabama Men Advances To Quarterfinals With Win Over Troy
After losing both meetings to the Trojans during the regular season, South Alabama finally found a way to win at the perfect time. With strong performances by key players, including a very visibly sick DeAndre Coleman, and Troy’s inability to hit clutch shots in the final minute of the game lead to the 78-75 victory.
The game started rough for the Jaguars with the Trojans hitting two 3-pointers and four missed shots by the Jags in the first 70 seconds of the game to jump out to an 8-0 lead. Coach Arrow quickly called a 30 second timeout to regroup his team.
At the 14:54 mark of the first half the Trojans again stretched their lead to eight points 16-8 but the Jaguars would start to come alive finally. The Jags would take the lead with a 10-1 run over 2:36. But the Jaguars could not go ahead by more than a single point, trading the lead several times in the first half. However, Troy would eventually regain a narrow lead and go into the locker room up by four, 41-37.
The second half would see more close play with the lead changing hands a couple times before USA was able to push out to a four point lead with 14:37 left in the second half. However that lead would be short lived and a few more lead changes would occurr before USA would take the lead for the final time of the game at the 11:31 mark.
USA would go out to their largest lead of the game at eight points with 3:57 remaining but they could not put Troy away for good. Ronald Douglas would get fouled and he would make both of his free throws at the 2:13 mark and DeAndre Coleman would be fouled and make both of his free throw attempts at the :34 second mark, but the Jaguar free throw shooting would be abysmal for the rest of the game.
After Coleman’s free throws the Jaguars were up 77-73 and a potentially costly fouled by Bryan Sherrer allowed Troy to pull back within two points with the clock stopped. The inbounds play saw DeAndre Coleman get fouled by Kenny Ware of Troy but Coleman missed his first attempt but sunk his second to give the Jaguars a three point lead with 28 seconds to go at 78-75.
In the final 28 seconds there were three missed shots by Troy and four missed free throws by the Jaguars. However its still a win for the Jaguars.
Troy’s Brandon Hazzard had a game high of 22 points going 8-20 from the floor, 4-12 from 3-point range and 2-4 from the free-throw line. Michael Vogler and Richard Delk both added 12 for the Trojans.
Domonic Tilford scored 20 points to lead the Jaguars going 7-20 from the floor, 2-8 from 3-point range and 4-4 from the free throw line. LaShun Watson added a career high 18 points. A sick DeAndre Coleman scored 17 points. Finally Brandon Davis scored 11 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double.
The Quarterfinal games for the Men’s Bracket will have #1 Western Kentucky squaring off against #4 North Texas at 6:30pm then the #6 Jaguars will take on #2 UALR at 9:00. With two more victories the Jaguars will automatically receive a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
GO JAGS!!!!
Jags Punch Their Ticket To Hot Springs Arkansas With 62-60 Win
Philip Tabet at the free throw line. - Image by Doug Roberts http://www.dougstech.com/
The Jaguars never trailed in the game but saw a 16 point advantage dwindle away to one with just a minute left in the game. But the Jags held on for the win over the Privateers in the first round of the SBC Tournament to advance to Hot Springs, Arkansas. #6 seed USA will face #3 Troy on Sunday at 9pm.
Domonic Tilford would open the game with a 3-pointer but was answered by UNO’s Jaroslav Tyrna’s 3-pointer seconds later. That would be the only tie of the game. The Jaguars would then go on a 13-4 run over the next five and a half minutes. But the privateers would close the gap with an 11-4 run of their own to get within two points at 20-18. However this would be as close as they would get for the remainder of the first half.
Ronald Douglas would visibily hurt his right shoulder in the first half on the offensive side and would have to come out with pain. When leaving the court he would soon go to the locker room and would not see any more action in the first half. His replacement, Philip Tabet, would spur the Jaguars 15-3 run over seven minutes when he hit a jumper and was fouled by UNO’s Jahmal Burroughs. Tabet sunk his free-throw as well. The Jaguars would go into the locker room with a 13 point lead.
A Domonic Tilford layup early in the second half would extend the Jaguar lead back to 15. But UNO would continue to fight over the next five minutes to cut the Jaguar lead down to eight at 43-35 with a 9-2 run. However the Jaguars would answer the privateers with a 12-4 run over about seven minutes for the largest Jaguar lead of the game at 16 points with 8:29 left in the game.
But when the Jags when up by 16, their shooting went cold. going over four minutes without a basket or free-throw. The Privateers would cut the lead to a mere three points, 56-53, with 3:27 left in the game with a 14-1 run. During the run the Jags missed three shots and DeAndre Coleman would miss two free-throws before Domonic Tilford would sink one of his two free throw attempts to end the scoreless drought.
DeAndre Coleman would a jumper at the 2:54 mark to give USA a key five point advantage. LaShun Watson would foul UNO’s Kyndall Dykes with Dykes making both free throws. With the jaguar lead now three points, Domonic Tilford would foul Justin Archie with 1:01 left in the game. Archie would sink both free throws to cut the Jaguar lead to one point. A Brandon Davis layup and foul with 33 seconds left would extend the lead to three points once again. Davis would miss his free throw attempt to extend the lead to four points.
UNO’s Kyndall Dykes attempted a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left and missed the shot. Brandon Davis got the rebound and was fouled by Jaroslav Tyrna to send Davis to the line again. Davis misses both attempts and UNO would come away with the rebound and Davis would foul T.J. Worley for his 5th personal foul. Worley would make his first attempt but missed his second and would miss their tip-in attempt to only cut the jaguar lead to two points, 60-58 with 12 seconds left.
Jaroslav Tyrna would be forced to fould Domonic Tilford with 7 seconds remaining to send him to the line. After making both free throws to seal the victory UNO would still try a desperation 3-pointer but missed with 4 seconds left. Kyndall Dykes would make a final shot as time expired for the final score of 62-60.
UNO’s Kyndall Dykes would lead all scorers with 17 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. T.J. Worley would be the only other Privateer in double digits with 15 points.
Domonic Tilford would lead USA in scoring with 13 points while LaShun Watson would add 11 and Ronald Douglas would add 11 points and five rebounds. Philip Tabet, who gave an emotional burst in the first half would end the night with 6 points and 5 rebounds.
USA lead the privateer in shooting 47%-38% from the floor, and 40%-33% from 3-point range. But the Privateers lead the free-throw percentage 76%-61%. The Jaguars also lead with points in the paint 28-22, points off turnovers 15-12 and second chance points 13-6. UNO would lead fast break points 7-4 and scoring from the bench would be even at 21 points each.
In his last four game, DeAndre Coleman has come away with 10 rebounds each time to gather his 500th during the game. He leads the conference in rebounding with 8.3 per game. The Jaguars are now 15-1 when leading at halftime for the season and are 9-0 when leading a Sun Belt team at half time.
Three more wins and the Jaguars will be in the NCAA Tournament. GO JAGS!!!!
Jaguars Lose On Poor Shooting And Turnovers
The Jaguars shot only 36% and had 17 turnovers in their loss to Troy in the regular season finale.
Troy started the game with an 11-3 run over the first six and a half minutes to take an eight point lead. A three-pointer by Domonic Tilford would spur the Jaguars to a short rally to cut the Trojan lead and tie the game at 16 about half way through the first half.
The Trojans would break the tie and push out to a seven point lead with 5:31 left in the first half. Again the Jaguars mounted a rally attempt and would cut the lead down to three, 29-26 with 2:52 left in the opening half. But Troy would again extend their lead to seven points, have it cut down to four points and extend it to seven once more just before halftime, 36-29.
Domonic Tilford would open the second half with a 3-pointer but would still see Troy’s lead grow to eight points four minutes into the second half. Yet another three pointer by Domonic Tilford would shrink the Trojan lead to four, 45-41 with 13:55 left in the second half. But Troy would answer with a 6-0 run to stretch their lead to the largest of the game, 51-41.
After trading baskets, the Jaguars would make another run at the Troy lead by going on a 7-0 run over three minutes to get within three points of the lead at 53-50. Troy would once again hit a 6-1 run over a minute and a half to lead by eight, 59-51. The Jaguars would make one last run for the game going 7-2 over four minutes and seventeen seconds to get within three points with 25 seconds left. LaShun Watson was forced to foul with 19 seconds left with Troy making both attempts to make the Trojan lead five points, 63-58. Domonic Tilford missed a three-point attemp with 14 seconds left forcing Ronald Douglas to foul when Troy came away with the rebound.
Domonic Tilford led the Jags in scoring with 17 on 5-17 shooting from the floor, 5-12 from 3-point range and going 2-2 from the free-throw line. Bryan Sherrer was the only other Jag to score in double digits with 12, he went 4-7 from the floor, missed both 3-point attempts but hit all four of his free-throw attempts.
Troy had four players in double digits. Michael Vogler scored 13, Brandon Hazzard had 12, and Antywan Jones and Mario Telfair both had 10 for the Trojans.
Troy outscored the Jags in the paint 36-20, off turnovers 17-6 and in fast break points 10-4. Troy also outshot the Jags 45% – 36% from the floor. While the Jags out rebounded Troy 45-34, they turned the ball over 17 times. However the Jaguar defense held Troy to 15 points below their season average and held them 31 lower than their previous matchup in the Mitchell Center.
Coach Arrow remarked after the game, “Offensively we just didn’t make enough plays. We didn’t attack the zone good, we had some guys that didn’t play well tonight and now we’ve got to go back to the drawing board. We have to have all of our guys show up ready to play for the tournament.”
Domonic Tilford is now seventh place in USA single season history with 74 three-point field goals in a season. DeAndre Coleman is also one rebound shy of 500 for his career at South Alabama.
USA drops to 17-12 for the season and 10-8 in the Sun Belt while Troy improves to 19-11 overall and 14-4 in the SBC. South Alabama will await the announcement of their opponent in the opening round of the Sun Belt Conference on Sunday.
GO JAGS!!
Jags Notch Fourth In A Row By Downing Louisiana-Monroe
Two Jaguars ended the night with double-doubles to lead USA to their fourth victory in a row and sixth in the last seven games. USA improves to 17-11 overall and 10-7 in the Sun Belt Conference.
ULM scored first in the game on two free-throws but USA would keep it close throughout the first four and a half minutes of the game. But with 15:25 left in the opening half with the Jags down by one at 8-9 they would go on a 18-4 run over the next seven plus minutes to take a 13 point lead with 7:47 left in the opening half. But ULM would slowly chip away at the Jaguar lead until they were within three points with 43 seconds to go in the half. A tip-in by DeAndre Coleman with time expiring took USA into the locker room with a five point advantage, 35-30.
USA’s lead would get out to as much as seven points in the opening minutes of the second half until a short 6-0 run over three minutes put the Jaguars back out to a double digit lead, 46-35.
USA and ULM would trade baskets over the next seven minutes until USA would finally push out to a 15 point lead with just under eight minutes left. Over the next four minutes they would methodically close the gap to seven, 63-56, with 3:48 to go in the game but that would be as close as they could get in the final minutes. A few traded baskets later and the Jags would win by the same margin 67-60.
DeAndre Coleman would lead all scorers with 21 points on 9-13 shooting, missing his only 3-point attempt and going 3-8 from the free-throw line but added 10 rebounds for a double-double while still blocking three shots. Brandon Davis would add 16 points and 14 rebounds for another double-double for USA. Domonic Tilford was the only other USA player in double-digits scoring with 11. Ronald Douglas also blocked four shots to extend his streak of consecutive games with a blocked shot to 12.
Louisiana-Monroe had three players in double digits: Lawrence Gilbert scored 14 and Malcolm Thomas and Kenneth Averette both scored 11.
The Jags shot 47% from the floor compared to ULM’s 35% and the Jags out rebounded them 41-34. USA outscored them in the paint 42-20, off turnovers 15-10, and fast break points 8-4.
When asked about the teams recent success Coach Arrow answered, “It’s defense. Our guards have bought into better guarding their man. Before, all of their guys were getting to the hole, and our guys were shot-blocking. Now, they’re doing a better job of containing, knowing that if they get by our post is there to shot-block. What Ronald Douglas does for this team, he alters so many shots. It’s good to know when they do get by our guards, we have the shot-blockers back there to guard the hole.”
The Jaguars regular season closer is scheduled for Saturday in Troy, Alabama with a 7:30pm tip-off.
GO JAGS!!!
Jaguars Come From Behind For Win Over Middle Tennessee
Jaguars turn up the defense and rally from nine points down for their third consecutive victory. With this win the Jaguars improve to 16-11 overall and 9-7 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Blue Raiders fall to 15-12 overall and 8-7 in the Sun Belt Conference.
MTSu started the game with a 7-0 run in the first three minutes of the game. The Jaguars would follow that up with a 6-0 run of their own in the next three minutes. Both teams would trade baskets over the next five minutes until USA finally gained the lead on a dunk by Ronald Douglas at the 9:01 mark of the first half.
The Jaguar lead would get out to as much as three points, 16-13, before MTSU would come back to regain the lead and go into halftime with a 26-23 advantage.
The beginning of the second half started simlarly to the first half with MTSU jumping out with an 8-2 runover the first three minutes. This run would put the Blue Raiders in front by nine points, 34-25, with 17:06 left in the second half. Early in the second half, LaShun Watson took an elbow to the mouth. It resulted in Watson receiving five stitches and he did not return to the game.
Down 41-33 with 11:25 remaining in the second half the Jaguars would regain the lead and control of the game with a 15-2 run over a five and a half minute run to take a five point lead. Kevin Kanaskie tried to keep the Blue Raiders in the game with a 3-pointer, cutting the lead back down to two, but USA would not let them get closer than that moment the rest of the way. The Jaguars would win the game 63-57.
Coach Arrow remarked about the game, “That was a very, very physical game. Both teams came out and got after it. The difference in the game was we held them to 36 percent and we had nine blocked shots. When you have that many blocked shots from guys getting to the hole, that’s almost like a turnover.”
Freshman phenom CJ Garner lead all USA scorers with 15 points for a career high, with 13 of them coming in the second half. More impressively he hit 5-6 free-throws in the final 38 seconds to help seal the victory. Coach Arrow remarked about Garner, “C.J. is growing up; he’s not a freshman anymore, We call him an advanced freshman, with all the experience that he’s gotten. He ran his team tonight very well.”
Three other Jaguars scored 11 points each: Domonic Tilford who went 6-6 fron the free throw line and made the only Jaguar 3-pointer for the game. DeAndre Coleman added 11 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots for his seventh double-double of the season and his ninth of his career. Ronald Douglas scored 11 points and had five blocked shots but only made 5-12 free throw attempts for the game.
MTSU had a pair of players score 15 points: Desmond Yates and Memetrius Green with only one 3-pointer between them. Kevin Kanaskie was the only other player in double digits for the Blue Raider with 11 being held to three 3-pointers for the contest.
USA held MTSU to 36% shooting for the game and 4-13 for the game from beyond the 3-point arc. But USA dominated the free-throw line going 28-42 while MTSU went 5-12. MTSU obviously had foul problems with Yates fouling out with 6:21 remaining in the game and another bench player fouling out in the game plus two other starters with four fouls each.
This win moves USA over Middle Tennessee to the 3rd position in the eastern division of the Sun Belt Conference, a full three games behind Troy for second place in the eastern division.
The Jaguars return home for their regular season finale when they host Louisiana-Monroe for a 7:05pm match-up in the Mitchell Center.
So come out and SUPPORT YOUR JAGS!!!