USA Loses On Layup In Finals Seconds Against UALR
A basket in the finals seconds allows University of Arkansas Little Rock to pull out a victory for the Jags at the Mitchell Center. A UALR layup with 15 seconds left ended a game that saw eight lead changes in the second half.
Most of the first half was played pretty tight with the largest UALR lead being six on two occasions before the Jaguars had a rough end to the first half when UALR scored six consecutive points in the finals 70 seconds to take a 34-25 lead into the locker room for halftime. A total of 25 fowls were committed in the first half with both teams visiting the charity stripe 29 times.
USA, over a two minute stretch in the second half, made their first run to get back into the game with an 8-2 run. But then UALR would extend the lead back out to seven with back-to-back shots in a 25 second span.
The Jags would then have a 7-0 run for gain a one point advantage at 44-43. Then over the next four minutes the lead would change hands five times with each teams advantage being one point until a 3-pointer put UALR up by two.
USA would regain the lead at 51-50 when Brandon Davis would convert three points the old fashioned way by making a basket while being fouled and sinking the free throw.
The trojans would pull out to a 59-55 lead in the waning minutes. The Jags would then score four points to tie the game at 59 over a 1:16 stretch. UALR would then have possession of the ball with 40 seconds left. Then Shane Edwards would lay in a basket with 15 seconds left to seal the game for the trojans at 61-59.
Domonic Tilford would lead USA in scoring with 15 on 6-19 shooting and 3-9 from beyond the arc. DeAndre Coleman scored 12 and pulled down 13 rebounds for a second double-double in the last two games. Brandon Davis rounded out the double digit scorers for USA with 11 and 8 rebounds.
The Trojans Shane Edwards lead all scorers with 23 points on 8-11 shooting, 1-2 from 3-point range and sinking all six free throw attempts. Matt Mouzy with 12 points was the only other trojan in double digits scoring.
USA out rebounded UALR 41-29 but were outshot in the game 41%-36% from the floor, 42%-19% from 3-point range. Both teams sank 14 free throws with USA going to the line 24 times, once more than UALR for the contest.
USA took the court without Ronald Douglas who injured his right shoulder in practice on Wednesday. He is expected to miss at least one week. The 6′ 8″ Douglas has averaged 5.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game and leads the team with 39 blocked shots.
The Jaguars fall to 11-8 (4-4 SBC) for the season, 0-4 at the Mitchell Center this season but are 4-0 on the road in the Sun Belt Conference. The Jaguars will start a two game road swing when they travel to Louisiana-Lafayette for a Saturday match-up with tip-off scheduled fro 7:15pm.
GO Jags!
Jaguars Woes At Home Continue With Loss To Troy
Troy connected on 16 of 30 shots from 3-point range in the Jaguar loss. Kenny Ware lead the way for Troy hitting 6-8 of the 3-pointers and finishing with a career-best 20 points. He was one of five Troy players in double figures. This loss dropped the Jags to 0-3 at home against Sun Belt Conference opponents, which is a stark contrast to last year when USA was 9-0 at home against SBC opponents during the regular season.
Troy opened the game with a 15-6 run in the first three-plus minutes. The Jags then went on a 10-2 run to close the gap to a single point at 17-16 with about 12 minutes left in the first half.
However, Troy would then go on a 20-2 run over the next 5:20 to break the game wide open for the Trojans. Three players combined to make give 3-pointers during the stretch, three of them by Ware. That would make the lead 37-18 when the run was over. But the Jaguars would regroup and held the Trojans without a basket for the last 3:07 of the half while scoring seven points to close the Trojans lead to 47-29 at halftime.
The lead would fluctuate from 16-21 points during the first six minutes of the second half. The Jags would get close to within 18 with 11-38 left but Troy would score the next 11 consecutive points in a 1:42 span to put the game away for the Trojans.
Bryan Sherrer would lead the Jaguars with 14 points on 4-8 shooting and connecting on his only attempt from 3-point range and hitting all five attempts from the free-throw line. Other Jags in double figures scoring were Domonic Tilford with 11 and Ronald Douglas with 10.
Five Trojans scored in double figures. Kenny Ware scored 20 points on 6-10 shooting going 6-8 from outside the arc and hitting both free-throw attempts. He also added six rebounds all on the defensive side. Richard Dekl scored 17, Brandon Hazzard scored 14, Travis Lee scored 11 and Mario Telfair socred 10.
While USA out-scored Troy 28-20 in the paint but Troy would leal all of the other categories: 18-9 pts off T/O, 10-7 2nd chance pts, 13-2 Fast break pts, and bench scoring 46-29.
Troy led the entire game and their largest lead was 33 points at the 8:09 mark in the second half. The Jaguars really need to find some sort of spark at the Mitchell Center. All Jaguar fans need to come out and support Coach Arrow, Coach Pietre and both the Men’s and Women’s teams. Both teams are coming down the stretch and they need a good push to finish out the SBC schedule.
Go Jags!
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. |
Men’s Basketball Recap
Since I last wrote about the Jaguars Basketball team they have played four games, so I knew I thought I had better write a recap for this stretch of games.
On Sunday December 7th, the Jaguars hosted Houston Baptist at the Mitchell Center and came away with a blow-out win 93-63 to push their winning streak to four games since the Arkansas lass back just before Thanksgiving. The team was led by Domonic Tilford who scored 19 points and was closely followed by Charles Tabet with 17. DeAndre Coleman lead the team with 12 rebounds, 9 of them were defensive. The team as a whole out rebounded Houston Baptist 49-27 for the game, and out shot them 51% to 37% from the floor, 47% to 41% from 3-point range and 80% to 50% from the free-throw line.
On December 13th, the Jaguars traveled to Starkville, MS to take on the Bulldogs of Mississippi State. The Jags trailed the entire first half but Ronald Douglas and Brandon Davis gave the Jags the lead in the first minute of the second half. The lead would change hands a couple times until the Jags had their last lead of the game at 38-37 before the Bulldogs pulled away with a 15-0 run in the next 3:30 of game time.
Brandon Davis lead the scoring with 19 on 7-19 shooting and falling one rebound shy of a double-double. The next leading scorer would Domonic Tilford with 11 on 4-11 shooting, 3-6 from 3-point range. Mississippi State was led by Jarvis Vardado with 21 on 9-11 shooting in 26 minutes of play. The Jags were out shot in two of the three categories: 36%-54% from the floor and 62%-71% from the free throw line. But they did manage to out shoot the Bulldogs from 3-point range 36%-29%. Also the Jags out rebounded the Bulldogs for the game 39 to 33.
The Jags opened the Sun Belt Conference season hosting Western Kentucky at the Mitchell Center. Domonic Tilford had one of the best nights of his career but could not lift the Jags to a victory over the Hilltoppers in a 66-69 loss. Tilford scored 30 points on 9-16 shooting, going 7-11 from beyond the arc and a perfect 5-5 from the charity stripe. LaShun Watson and DeAndre Coleman both scored 10 points each. Brandon Davis came down with 13 rebounds with 9 of them being defensive.
The Hilltoppers were lead by A.J. Slaughter who scored 21 points on 8-19 shoting and going 2-5 from 3-point range. Orlando Mendez-Valdez scored 20 going 7-11 from the floor and 4-8 from 3-point range. Two other Hilltoppers scored in double digits with Sergio Kerusch earning a double-double with 10 points and 16 rebounds (13 of them defensive).
The lead changed 12 times over the course of the game, the last with just over seven minutes to go in the game. The Hilltoppers pushed out to the largest lead of the game, 67-61 with just over two minutes left in the game. Domonic Tilford hit a three with from the top of the key with 19 seconds to go to bring the Jags within one point. A.J. Slaugter then ended the scoring with two free throws just two seconds later.
The Jaguars were out-shot in all three categories: Field Goals 44%-48%, 3-point Field Goals 40%-44% and Free Throws 57%-89%. But just like the previous game, the Jags out rebounded the opposition 35-31.
Last night, December 20th, the Jaguars rebounded with 62-57 win over Florida International to even their mark in the Sun Belt Conference at 1-1 and snap a two game losing streak. Tilford followed up the 30 point effort against WKU with a 23 point game against FIU shooting 7-13 from the field and going 2-4 from 3-point range. No other Jaguars scored in double digits. The Jags led in two of the three shooting categories, Field Goals 42%-36% and Free Throw 70%-58%, but FIU out-shot the Jags from outside the arch 53%-50%. Also, FIU out rebounded the Jags 37-34.
USA will have an eight day holiday break for the Christmas Holiday but will return to the Mitchell Center with on December 28th to take on the Spring Hill Badgers with a 2:05pm Sunday afternoon tipoff.
Go Jags!
Jaguars Rally Leads To Overtime Win At Southern Mississippi
The Jaguars improved their record to 5-3 on the season with the overtime victory at Southern Miss. DeAndré Coleman made a layuup with 31 seconds left in the game on Tuesday to put the Jags on top for good. Coleman, in addition to putting USA in front for good, also was the his second double-double in a row. Ronald Douglas blocked a follow-up shot by Craig Craft which Domonic Tilford then made the rebound and was fouled to seal the game with two made free throws.
The Jags were lead by Domonic Tilford who scored 15 on the night. Both DeAndrae Ross and Ronald Douglas scored 13 while DeAndre Coleman came off of the bench to score 12 and collect 12 rebounds. Leading all scores was Jeremy Wise from USM with 7-20 fieldgoals, 4-11 from three and 10-13 free throws for a 28 point night.
USA was down by six points at halftime but came out in the second half with several quick scores to erase whittle that lead down to one point and taking the lead shortly thereafter.
USA lead 57-52 with 6:15 left in the game but USM came back to force overtime by hitting 3 three pointers in the final 3:30 of the game.
The Jags will take the court again on Sunday with an afternoon tip-off against Houston Baptist at the Mitchell Center at 2:05pm.
Go Jags!