Jags Advance To Face #1 Troy In The Sun Belt Tournament
The ninth seeded South Alabama Jaguars opened up the Sun Belt Tournament against the eighth seeded Florida Atlantic with a win on Saturday. While the Owls are sent home, the Jags advance in the SBC Tournament and get one step closer to the SBC title game.
The beginning to the game was quite rough for the Jags, committing seven turnovers and only scoring two points in the opening three minutes of the match up. However after the first five minutes passed and the Owls lead was stretched to six points, the Jags woke up and began playing basketball again.
The Jags, lead by Tim Williams scoring, would rally the Jags and take the lead. FAU would be held to shooting only 20% from the floor for the half and would miss its last 10 three point attempts. They also went over five minutes without a single point. But Sherrer would end the half a four point play when FAU fouled him while making his three point attempt.
The second half was a bit like cruise control for the Jags for the most part. They would extend their lead out to 14 at one point in the second half. However, this would not hold. The Owls would get back into the game with a 15-4 run to close the Jaguar lead to a mere three points, 46-43.
The Jags would score on back to back possessions to regain a seven point lead, However the Owls would not give up scoring eight consecutive points to regain the lead by one with 27.4 seconds left.
The Owls would foul twice trying to force a turnover, however their number of team fouls did not send the Jags to the line. Bryan Sherrer would nail a jumper with five seconds left to give the Jags the final score of the game, 52-51.
The Owls tried a desperation shot to try to win the game, however it was off its mark and time expired.
Bryan Sherrer lead the Jags with 21 points on 8-11 shooting and 2-3 from outside the arc. Close behind though was Tim Williams who scored 12. No other Jags were in double digits.
After the game Coach Arrow said, “It was a very close game. We survived and get to go on and there are a lot of schools that wish that they were still playing. Our guys played hard. I was proud of our guys – they played hard and hit the big bucket at the end.”
With the win the Jags improve to 17-14 on the season and will face the #1 seed Troy Trojans on Sunday with tip-off scheduled for 6:45pm.
Go Jags!
Latest News About South Alabama Sports February 16, 2010
Football
Earlier this month, the Jags signed 22 players for their 2010 class. Their process to get to Football Bowl Subdivision play will continue this week as they return to the practice field for Spring workouts.
On Thursday, they will begin working out for 15 practices which includes four full-contact practices and three scrimmages. Their practice period will end on March 10th when they will conclude their spring drill session with a 6pm scrimmage at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Admission and parking will be free. The other 14 workouts will be held at the Jaguars on-campus practice facility near the Football Fieldhouse. All events are open to the public and free.
Head Coach Joey Jones says things will be different from last year. “I expect the first day to be a really good day, as opposed to waiting three to five days to get things going last spring. Last year, we were starting from scratch. Nobody knew terminology or each other, but now we’ve started to build a team. We’ve gone through a summer program, a year and an offseason, so our kids know each other and what to expect from us as coaches. We should be able to pick up from where we were at the end of the season and progress from there.”
The opening week of spring drills will have the Jags out on the practice field for workouts on Thursday at 7:30am and Friday at 7am in only helmets. Then drills on Saturday at 9am with pads but no tackling. Four other full pads practices without full contact are scheduled for February 22, February 24, March 1, and March 8 all will begin around 7am. Their first full-contact practice is scheduled for Tuesday, February 23 at 7:30am with more scheduled for February 25, March 2 and March 4.
The Jags first scrimmage is scheduled for Saturday, February 27 at 9am. Other scrimmages are scheduled on Saturday March 6 at 11am and their final scrimmage on March 10 at 6pm. On Tuesday, March 9 at 9am, the Jags will work out only in pads in preparation for the scrimmage the next day.
Men’s Basketball
Bryan Sherrer went down with a knee injury early in the February 11th game against Florida International. It was announced yesterday by Coach Ronnie Arrow that he tore his lateral meniscus and will miss 2-4 weeks.
Bryan has started the first 26 games of the season and averages just over 10 points per game, which is third best on the team. He also ranks eighth in the nation in free-throw percentage at 90.8%.
This will be a big loss for the Jags as the Sun Belt Conference tournament begins in just about two and a half weeks in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The tournament is the only hope the Jags have to make the NCAA Tournament this season after losing two key players for the rest of the season back in January.
Martino Brock, a freshman, was named the Sun Belt Conference’s Men’s Basketball Player of the Week on Monday. This was his first honor of his collegiant career.
His contributions over the last week lead the Jags to two wins by averaging 18.5 points and 12.5 rebounds. He also recorded two double-doubles. He ranks second on the team in two categories, with a season average of 12.3 points per game and 6.9 rebounds per game.
Women’s Basketball
After starting off strong (9-0) in the Sun Belt, the Lady Jags have cooled off with two 3 game losing streaks recently. They are now sitting at 4th place (of six) with a 9-6 record in the Sun Belt eastern division and in 6th place overall in the SBC.
Arkansas-Little Rock and Middle Tennessee State are leading their divisions, both with 13-1 records in the Sun Belt. UALR has the overall edge for the season with a record of 20-5 to MTSU’s 18-5.
However, it just came to our attention that Tashley Gaines has been dismissed from the team. She was the Jags leading rebounder and their third leading scorer. It is unknown why she was dismissed from the team at this time as no official announcement has surfaced.
USA Men And Women Both Host Teams In First Round Of SBC Tournament
On Sunday afternoon both the Jaguar Men and Women learned that they will host teams for the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament.
The Lady Jaguars will host Florida International at 5pm on Wednesday to open a double header in the Mitchell Center. The second half of the double header will have the Men hosting New Orleans with a tip-off scheduled for 7:30pm.
The Lady Jags regular season came to a close on Saturday with a 19-9 record and going 10-8 in the Sun Belt. They were in a tie with Denver, Troy, Western Kentucky and Arkansas State. The Sun Belt’s tie-breaking system seeded USA 5th and will host the 12 seeded Florida International.
The Men’s team finished the season on Saturday night with a 17-12 record overall and 10-8 in the SBC. USA finished tied with Middle Tennessee for 5th place but was on the losing end of the tiebreaker to be seeded 6th in the tournament and will host the 11th seeded New Orleans Privateers.
The winners of these match-ups will advance to Hot Springs, Arkansas for the rest of the Sun Belt Tournament held March 7th through March 10th with the Men’s Championship game being broadcast on ESPN2 and the Women’s Championship game being broadcast on ESPN-Plus.
Come out and SUPPORT YOUR JAGS!!!