The Jags Rally For A Big Win To End The Regular Season On Senior Night
Martino Brock slamming the ball home and taking the momentum away from the Pioneers in the second half of the game at the Mitchell Center.
The Jags rally from a seemingly insurmountable deficit on Senior night to beat Denver Thursday at the Mitchell Center in their regular season finale. This win puts the Jags at 16-14 overall and 8-10 in the Sun Belt Conference while Denver falls to 16-12 and 9-8 in the Sun Belt.
Denver opened the game with a three pointer, which was the theme of the first half. The Pioneers would go 9-13 from three point range and hold the Jags to a season low of scoring in the first half to build a 33-19 lead at halftime.
The second half would be different though.
Denver would come out of the halftime break to go on a 12-4 run while forcing the Jags into three turnovers on their way to a 45-23 lead with 15:11 left in the game.
The Jags pulled together and went on a 14-0 run to cut the Denver lead to 8 points. In the span of six possessions, the Pioneers would turn the ball over five times. But once Denver ended their scoring drought with a lay-up, the Jags would go on a 6-0 run with four of them coming from freshman Jayson Guerrier.
Denver would score on a lay-up with 6:38 left in the game to extend the Pioneer lead back to six. But this is when Tim Williams would take over. Williams would make two free-throws with 2:55 left. Then he would also nail a three pointer with 1:30 left to cut the Poineer lead to one point at 49-48.
Denver would go to the line and only make one of two free-throw attempts, but would get the rebound off the miss but would promptly turn it over to the Jaguars. On the ensuing Jaguar possession, Williams would knock down a three pointer with 31 seconds left to give the Jags their first lead since the 7:06 mark in the first half.
Denver would turn the ball over once more, for their 21st of the game, and send Williams to the line once more. He would hit the first but miss the second to extend the Jags lead to 52-50.
However, Denver would make a shot from the baseline to tie it at 52.
Williams would bring the ball up the court then on the dribble drive, he would shoot an awkward looking shot that would kiss high off the glass and bank in with second seconds left to give the Jags a two point advantage at 54-52.
The Pioneers had two chances to tie the game at the end but could not get a shot to go.
After the game Coach Arrow said, “This was a game of nothing but pride and heart. In the second half, I thought we played our style. The press was the difference in the game. It caused more turnovers for them, and I really think they got tired. They didn’t make a three in the second half. I think their legs got a little tired.”
Furthermore he said, “We wanted to send our seniors out as winners and we did that. I think that was really important. But the bottom line is we as coaches can’t make players play. They have to go out there and do their thing. It’s a war out there and they decided in the second half that it was a war and they were going to show up for it and do something about it. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Tim Williams scored half of his points in the game in the final three minutes of the game. He ended the game with a game-high 22 points. Javier Carter was the only other Jag in double figures with 13 coming off the bench.
The three seniors, brothers Charles and Philip Tabet along with Bryan Sherrer, were honored before the game. Both Charles and Philip started while Sherrer was on the bench with his knee injury.
The next game for the Jags will be in Hot Springs, Arkansas for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on March 6-9. The opponent will be officially named on Sunday, but early indications point to a rematch between the Jags and the Pioneers.
Jags Suffer Hard Loss To MTSU 82-67
The Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State stay undefeated in the Sun Belt Conference with a win at the Mitchell Center 82-67. The game mirrored how the weather was in Mobile for the day, sloppy and a bit ugly at times.
The Jags held an early lead after tip-off but the Raiders quickly took the lead and held it the rest of the way. USA held its own in the first half and was down by as much as eight points and would come back to tie the game after a 11-3 run that was spurred by Phillip Tabet coming in with an assist, tipping-in a shot, sinking two free-throws and blocking a shot. He would finish the game with 13 minutes of play time, scoring four points, five rebounds and three blocked shots. With 4:30 left in the first half the score was tied at 26 and they would see three more tied before MTSU went into the locker room with a four point lead at 36-32.
With 17:41 left in the game, the Jags were hanging in only down 41-35 until an 11-2 run in only two and a half minutes firmly put the contest into MTSU’s favor at 52-37.
The Jags would make a seven point run with about eight minutes left to bring the Jags within 14 with less than five minutes to go and would cut the lead even further with under two minutes to go at 78-65. But 13 points would be as close as they could get.
Watching the game, you see why MTSU was chosen to finish first in the SBC Eastern Division when you see that they made nearly 70% of their shots from the floor in the second half. They outshot USA for the game 49%-44% from the floor, 44%-39% from 3-point range and 90%-70% from the free-throw line.
For the fifth consecutive game, Domonic Tilford lead the team in scoring with 18. He was helped by DeAndre Coleman who scored 13 and Brandon Davis with 11 before he fouled out in the final minutes. Ronald Douglas had 5 blocks.
MTSU was lead in scoring by Demetrius Green who had 18 and was helped by Desmond Yates with 17, Kevin Kanaskie with 16 and Montarrio Haddock with 13 to round out the double digit scorers.
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| A Frustrated Coach Arrow sheds his jacket. |