Jags Top The Golden Panthers At Home
South Alabama found a way to finish a game, unfortunately it was against one of the worst teams in the Sun Belt Conference. They came out on top in overtime by a score of 69-65. This improves the Jags record to 14-12 for the season and 6-8 in the Sun Belt. Meanwhile, Florida International falls to 7-20 for the season and 4-10 in the Sun Belt.
Senior Bryan Sherrer left the game early in the first half with a knee injury and did not return. With the problems the Jags have with their depth chart this season, this could have spelled doom for the game. However, Freshman Martino Brock was the one to lead the Jags by coming away with team-highs in points with 18 and rebounds with 12.
Yet again this season the Jags had a double digit lead in a game but would squander it late in the second half. They had the lead for almost 17 minutes in the second half but FIU would ride a 9-3 run into the lead for the first time in the game.
The two teams traded free throws before Brock tied the game at 60 in the waning moments of the game. FIU would attempt to win it in regulation but Gary Redus would block the shot.
FIU would score first in overtime with two free-throws but Redus would tie the game for the last time with a lay-up. It was Brock then, who would put South Alabama ahead for the final time with two free-throws. Then DeAndre Hersey would grab a missed shot by Brock and jam it home with a mere 40 seconds left to give the Jags a four point lead.
The Jags held FIU to 0-for-8 from the floor in overtime and 33.3% for the game. South Alabama didn’t do much better though, only shooting 33.8% for the game.
Coach Arrow on the Jaguars finish: “At the end of this game, we got some stops that we haven’t been getting in other games. We made our free throws, for the most part, and didn’t turn the ball over. That’s entirely different than what we’ve been doing in these other games where we’ve gone down to the wire. It was completely reversed tonight. We got some big buckets by different players and won the game.”
Coach Arrow also spoke about his teams strategy for the game. “We tried to spread it and get it to the hole. When Bryan went out, we had people playing in positions they haven’t played before. We had to go to our spread offense and try to get to the hole and pitch to the open man. We’re probably going to have to do more of that now with Bryan being out. We have some key guys who are out, and it’s given other guys opportunities that they need to take advantage of.”
The Jags final game of this homestand will be on Saturday against Louisiana-Lafayette with tip-off scheduled for 7:05pm.