Stephen F. Austin
Jackson State
Hot-Shooting Lumberjacks Top Jackson State
12/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2007
JACKSON, Miss. - Matt Kingsley scored Stephen F. Austin's first 10 points and finished with a game-high 26 as the Lumberjacks took an 82-67 road victory over Jackson State Saturday in Williams Assembly Center. The win extends SFA's win streak to three in a row with the last two coming on the road.
Jackson State shot a season-best 49 percent from the field, but, unfortunately for the Tigers, the effort came against SFA's best shooting performance of the year. The Lumberjacks hit 63 percent from the floor including a season-best 48 percent from 3-point range.
Senior guard Gerald Fonzie led the way from beyond the arc. He tied his career-best with 19 points and set a new career-high for 3-point field goals by going 5-for-8 from long range. Junior forward Josh Alexander joined Kingsley and Fonzie in double digits with 16 points, and pulled down 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Sophomore Eric Bell scored 13 points to record his third straight double-figure scoring game.
SFA used an early 13-1 run to take charge and went on to knock down 56 percent from the field to take a 39-29 lead to the locker room. That marks the best first-half shooting percentage of the year for SFA. Kingsley helped initiate the hot shooting, trading buckets with Jackson State center Jeremy Caldwell in the early minutes. Caldwell scored the Tigers' first six points and eight of their first 11. After scoring the first 10 points of the contest for SFA, Kingsley went to the locker room with 12 points.
Jackson State tried to climb back into contention by taking its game outside the 3-point line in the second half. After attempting only one three in the opening frame, the Tigers shot 6-of-12 from downtown in the second half. But SFA's hot shooting continued after the break, as well. The Lumberjacks opened the second half by hitting 86 percent through the first five minutes, including 2-for-3 from 3-point range. The Tigers cut the lead to single figures a couple of times, but could get no closer than seven points, as SFA hit a season-best 71.4 percent overall in the second frame.
With the win, SFA improves to 5-1, while Jackson State falls to 1-7. The Lumberjacks will return home to host Southern Tuesday in a 7 p.m. game.
