Stephen F. Austin
Jackson State
`Jacks Hold Off Jackson State
12/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 2, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball team survived a furious second-half run by Jackson State to hold on for a 73-59 win Tuesday in the William R. Johnson Coliseum. Senior center Matt Kingsley scored a career-high 33 points that included a pair of clutch shots down the stretch to help secure the win.
SFA moves to 3-2 and stays undefeated at home with the victory. Jackson State falls to 1-6 on the year, but the Tigers put up quite a fight.
Jackson State used a 19-2 run over the first nine minutes of the second half to trim what had been a 25-point SFA lead to eight at 48-40 with 11:01 to play. The Lumberjacks stopped the bleeding with a Josh Alexander free throw on the next possession, but the Tigers would whittle the lead down to four points (55-51) with 7:03 remaining.
The Lumberjacks' top two scorers, Kingsley and Alexander, responded with big buckets on two of the next three possessions. First Kingsley knocked down a jumper in the paint to push the lead back to six points. He was fouled on the play but couldn't convert at the stripe. After the teams traded missed jumpers, Kingsley and sophomore Eddie Williams each recorded blocked shots on the same Tiger possession, and Alexander hit a 3-pointer to stretch the advantage to nine points, 60-51, with 6:05 remaining.
The Tigers would cut the lead to seven a minute later, but Williams hit a free throw, and Benson Akpan laid in a second-chance bucket after Alexander rebounded his own missed 3-point attempt to put SFA ahead by 10, 63-53, with 4:14 to play.
Jackson State trimmed the margin to eight twice down the stretch, but SFA went 6-for-6 at the foul line in the last three minutes and got baskets from Kingsley and junior point guard Girod Adams to keep the Tigers at arm's length.
Kingsley was 15-for-16 on the night and hit 12 straight baskets before finally recording his first miss of the game early in the second half. The 15 field goals bested his previous career-high of 13 made attempts, and his 33 points surpassed the 30 he scored in a game against Schreiner College during the 2006-07 season.
Kingsley scored the Lumberjacks' first 13 points and had his team ahead, 13-8, with 14:26 left in the first period. He finished the opening half with 25 points on 12-for-12 shooting from the floor, leading SFA to a .633 shooting percentage and a 44-21 halftime advantage.
Kingsley did most of his damage on lob passes over the Jackson State defense that led him toward the hoop for layups. As a result, the Lumberjacks went to the locker room with 16 assists on 19 made baskets.
Jackson State adjusted at halftime and held Kingsley to just eight points on 3-of-4 shooting in the second period. Meanwhile, the Tigers upped their shooting percentage from .286 in the first half to .464 after the break and went 12-of-17 from the stripe in the second period to close the gap.
For the game, SFA shot a season-best 58 percent from the field. The Lumberjacks outscored Jackson State, 40-22, in the paint, the second consecutive game they've led by double figures in that category. The teams combined for 34 turnovers with SFA giving it up 19 times, but the `Jacks outscored Jackson State, 16-15, in points off turnovers.
The Lumberjacks came away with a slim 32-30 edge in rebounding, led by seven from Alexander and six by Kingsley. Alexander finished with 14 points, as did Adams, who played 19 minutes in the second half, filling in for injured starter Eric Bell, who was unable to take the floor after halftime. Adams was 4-for-4 from the field, including a 2-of-2 effort on 3-pointers, and went 4-for-4 at the foul line.
SFA finished with 20 assists, one off its season-high, led by five dimes from Alexander. Five other players - Nick Shaw, Bell, Williams, Adams and Jarrod McDaniel - recorded three assists each. Akpan added five rebounds to go along with his four points in just 11 minutes.
The Lumberjacks will wrap up their three-game home stand Saturday night with a game against Texas Wesleyan. The contest is set to tip at 6 p.m. from Johnson Coliseum.
- SFA -
