MOBILE, Ala.?Arkansas State couldn't hold on a to a double figure first-half lead as the Jaguars of South Alabama wore down the Indians in the second half to claim a 78-69 win in men's Sun Belt action Saturday.
ASU (10-14, 5-5) played just seven players on the night against the USA (16-5, 7-2) high-pressure defense and slowly faded in the second half. The loss by ASU dropped the Indians from second in the SBC East down to fourth. Despite the loss, head coach Dickey Nutt sang the praises of his team.
“With the lineup that we were playing tonight it really hurt us rebounding the basketball,” said Nutt. “But I was really proud of our guys. I told them after the game that they gave me every ounce of effort, even though we were a little bit short-handed, let's not make any excuses. We played very well for about 30 or 34 minutes.”
A 42-34 halftime edge by the Indians slowly evaporated in the second half as the Jags started chipping away at ASU's lead. USA tied the game at 49 at the 15:47 mark on the strength of a 15-7 run, keyed by nine points from USA's leading scorer Mario Jointer. Jointer's last bucket in the run was a 3-pointer from deep on the wing to knot the score at 49.
From there the game was back and forth as the two teams traded baskets. Neither team could establish any run after that for the next 8:47 of the game. But Chey Christie's free throw gave USA a 63-60 lead at the seven minute mark as the Indians went ice cold from the field.
As the Indian offense sputtered, the Jaguars were sparked by a three from Steve Cowherd with 5:24 left in the game. ASU managed to slice the USA lead down to a single point when Dereke Tipler connected on a pair of free throws to make the score 66-65.
But it was all USA afterwards. A pair of deep three's from Demetric Bennett keyed an 8-0 run that iced the game.
Dereke Tipler had to miss about four minutes of game time after rolling his ankle. When Tipler went out, the Jags took over the game offensively and the full court pressure forced ASU into turnovers. Nutt said that losing Tipler during that stretch was a key part of the game.
“It really fell apart for us, especially when Dereke went down, there was about four possessions in a row that really did us in,” said Nutt. “I thought South Alabama wore us down and their pressure defense forced us into some turnovers that sparked them in the second half.”
Tipler returned after getting his ankle taped but was noticeable hobbled the rest of the night.
Tipler and the rest of the starters carried the entire scoring load as the Indians got zero points from the bench. Jim Jones had his best scoring night in a conference game by scoring 18 points. Marcus Ardison scored 17 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds. Tipler added 13 points and five boards, Isaac Wells scored 12 and Yual Banks scored nine before getting in foul trouble.
USA was led by Jointer's 17 points while Bennett came off the bench to score 13 including those two back-breaking three's in that second-half run. Chey Christie added 13 points and Jason McGriff powered his way to a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
The Jags were harassed from behind the arc most of the night and were 3-of-24 from deep before Bennett canned his two during the run.
ASU has a week off before playing a home game against Florida International on Feb. 11 at 4:05 p.m. The Indians will then face Middle Tennessee on Feb. 16 to wrap up the home portion of the season.
