South Alabama held Arkansas-Little Rock without a field goal over the final 3:49 and survived a late rally for a 57-55 victory Thursday night in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
The sixth-seeded Jaguars advance to face No. 3 seed Louisiana-Monroe on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Lead Nearly Slips Away
South Alabama led by as many as 18 points midway through the second half before UALR cut the margin to one point with 28.4 seconds left.
UALR’s Josh Hagins went to the free throw line on a flagrant foul with a chance to tie but made only one of two. Because of the flagrant foul, the Trojans kept possession, and the Jaguars forced a turnover. Barrington Stevens III then made one of two free throws to push the lead to 57-55.
Senior Dionte Ferguson blocked a shot with four seconds left, and Hagins missed a desperation attempt at the buzzer.
Ferguson Leads the Way
Ferguson finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks for his fifth double-double of the season.
Stevens scored 14 points, and Ken Williams had 12, all in the second half. Abdul Lewis and Taishaun Johnson each added eight points, and Lewis grabbed 11 rebounds.
Graves on the Win
“I’m extremely proud of my team,” head coach Matthew Graves said. “The preparation was really good. I thought we got off to a tremendous start in the first half. We did unbelievable job shrinking the floor; held them to under 30 percent in the first half, and that’s what you have to do. If you want to win at tournament time, you have to really lock in and defend.”
Graves said his team became tentative around the 12-minute mark of the second half.
“You can say fatigue, all kinds of excuses, but the bottom line is we got tight, missed some shots and turned the ball over a few times,” he said. “UALR is a very good team. They’re very explosive. They’re capable of making 3s and then they started putting the ball on the floor and getting into the paint and that really bothered us. We were trying to juggle some foul trouble, but the two possessions there late where we dug in defensively and got stops, those were two of the best possessions we’ve had all year long.”
“They hung tough; they battled and it was one of the few times I could say that we got it done on the defensive end of the floor,” Graves added. “Usually we score a bunch of points and they’re able to stretch things out, or we score to make a play to win the game, but tonight I can honestly say those couple possessions late defensively, I’m most proud of those two.”
Up Next
Friday’s quarterfinal against Louisiana-Monroe will be broadcast on 710 AM WNTM in the Mobile area and on iHeartRadio, and streamed on ESPN3.com.
