Four In The Southland

[Tim Moungey]

November 16th
All four teams in action today, with two home showings, but first...

Nicholls State 85 Cornell 74
Bobby Ray Jackson is first in the victory books on Michael Hall's 24 points. Collin Wiatre and Leon Edward follow up their strong opening games with 15 and 10 points respectively, and Mark Stokes adds 10 bench points.

UT-San Antonio 62 Quinnipiac 83
A straight rout. Cy Higgins and his 17 points were the only Roadrunner to show up.

Western Michigan @ Lamar
Five minutes into the game and the Cardinals actually held a 10-8 lead, combating Kris Blackmon's 6 points on 3-4 shooting with a balanced offense ignited by true freshman Derrick Hays, who'd hit both of his shot attempts.

13:03 in the first half, Lamar still up, 14-10, but Rashad Stewart picked up his second foul.

9:19 left in the first and two shots by Jeff Clancy have the Cardinals ahead 20-14.

With 3:21 to go in the first half, the Cardinals caught a huge break when Kris Blackmon got whistled for his third foul. Lamar held a 35-30 lead at that point, led by Jeff Clancy, Derrick Hays, and the surprisingly steady bench performance of Dereck Weathers at the point.

Lamar went into the half with a 44-36 halftime lead keyed by 61.3% shooting and a stellar 12 point, 4 assist, 1 turnover first 20 minutes by Jeff Clancy.

30 seconds into the half, Rashad Stewart had not only missed a shot, but picked up his third foul.

9:29 to go. Lamar up 64-56. The Broncos were not only utilizing Kris Blackmon, but Richard Hansen had also stepped up in a big way to keep the Cardinals from pulling away.

7:51. Lamar still leading, 66-58. Jeff Clancy gets his first breather after missing two free throws.

82-69 Lamar wins, making Izulde Jestor[b/] the first home winner of the Southland Four. 23 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 turnovers for clear Player of the Game [b]Jeff Clancy. Not to be forgotten - David Wesley's 12 points, 9 rebounds and a steal, the true freshman hitting all 8 of his free throw tries. 11 points and 5 rebounds for Marco Boone in relief of Rashad Stewart for most of the game, and of course, the hot hand of Dereck Weathers with 13 points, 5 assists and 3 rebounds on 6/7 shooting.

[u]Drexel vs. Texas State[/b]
The Bobcats jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead, led by Courtney Dumas' 6 points.

Drexel roared back for a 13-10 advantage, as Texas State couldn't find any offense from anyone but Dumas, who made things worse by picking up his second foul with 12:08 to go in the half.

6:56 on the clock saw a 21-21 draw. David Bennem stepped up off the bench to provide 5 key points, the Bobcats finding enough to keep it close even with Dumas sitting.

The rest of the period was mostly controlled by Drexel, despite the narrowest of slivers in which Texas State led by a point. Still, the Dragons held only a two point advantage, 35-33 at halftime, despite woeful Bobcat shooting. Courtney Dumas still led Texas State in scoring with 8 points, despite having sat at the 8 minute mark.

Guess what happened 50 seconds into the second half? If you said a Courtney Dumas third foul, gold star.

But they kept playing him, and at the 16:45 mark, fourth foul.

8:45 - every time the Bobcats mounted a challenge to get within 1, the Dragons would claw back with a 3, or a big bucket, to keep Texas State down.

1:49 on the clock - After going down by 10, Texas State fought back to a tie, but Fred Dukes just made a critical foul. Drexel sinks both free throws for a 63-61 lead.

Turnover by Texas State on the next possession.

63-63 tie, 45 seconds left. Bobcats' ball... and another ****ing turnover.

Drexel makes it on the other end.

26 seconds left, down 63-65.

The Dragons have outplayed Texas State most of the game, so Vincent Reyes decides to hell with it and to go for the 3 point glory.

Not only did Texas State miss the 3, Drexel added insult to injury with a buzzer-beating 3 and the final 68-63 margin for the Dragons.

More of Courtney Dumas, who finished with 12 points in 18 minutes, would have helped win this one.

Further injury? David Bennem - strained knee - out 10 days