JONESBORO, Ark.?Marcus Ardison scored a career-high 22 points and Dereke Tipler hit a free throw with 6.1 seconds left to help Arkansas State come from 18 points down to Middle Tennessee to claim a 75-74 victory here on Thursday night.
ASU (12-14, 7-5 Sun Belt Conference) led just 6.1 seconds of the game, when Tipler connected on the front end of a one-and-one to give ASU its only lead of the game at 75-74. Regardless, ASU head coach Dickey Nutt was glad it was Tipler shooting the free throw with the game on the line.
“I tell you, if you have to have a guy go to the free throw line with six seconds to go and the game is on the line, you want Dereke Tipler or one of your seniors on the line,” said Nutt. “I don't know how many times I can say that Dereke is the heart and soul of this team.”
After Tipler connected on the front end of the free throws, he missed on the next and MTSU (13-11, 5-6 Sun Belt Conference) rebounded and called a timeout. The Blue Raiders, the length of the court to go and down by one, threw the ball into Marus Morrison deep on the left wing. Morrison looked for the cutter to the basket but sailed the ball out of bounds, sealing ASU ?s first win over MTSU in the last three tries.
The Indians closed the game on a 9-0 run to claim the win over MTSU, but it was a defensive switch late that Nutt credits with the win.
“Defensively we just could not get a stop,” said Nutt. “I thought the difference, maybe, in the last few minutes, we switched to a zone and it threw them off just a little bit. We were able to get two or three stops in a row.”
While Tipler produced his near-usual night of 15 points, five rebounds, six assists and four steals, it was Ardison's 22 points, 14 points in the second half. Ardison scorched the nets by shooting 10-of-14 from the field in 37 minutes of action.
“Marcus had a great night tonight,” said Nutt. “He's improved so much as a ball player and a person over the last couple of years and I can't say enough about him.”
A one-point victory seemed highly unlikely with 6:27 left in the first half. The Blue Raiders jumped out to an enormous lead on the Indians, going up by double figures in less than six minutes and leading by as many as 18 with 6:27 left in the first half.
But ASU regrouped.
An Isaac Wells 3-pointer from the top of the key seemed to light a fire under the Indian offense as ASU closed the first half on an 18-6 run. The Indians trailed by just six at 41-35 at the break.
Wells and Jim Jones scored 12 points each for ASU, and along with Tipler and Ardison were the only Indians to reach double figures on the night. The Blue Raiders were paced by 17 points from Adam Vogelsberg, while Kyle Young muscled inside for 14 points, Theryn Hudson added 12 and Tim Blue scored 10.
The win pushed ASU's league record to 7-5 on the season, 1 ? games ahead of the Blue Raiders and Arkansas-Little Rock for the all-important second-seed heading into the SBC tournament, with just two league games left for the Indians. The win also gave Dickey Nutt his 100th in the Convocation Center.
ASU will step out of conference play Saturday to face the Governors of Austin Peay State. The contest came about from a pool of 100 teams vying for a chance at a spot in the BracketBuster. Tipoff for the game is set for 7:30 p.m.
