Stephen F. Austin
Massachusetts
SFA Bounced From NIT
3/18/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 18, 2008
AMHERST, Mass. - Massachusetts shot 60 percent in the second half and outscored Stephen F. Austin, 47-35, in the second period as the Minutemen collected an 80-60 win over the road-weary Lumberjacks Tuesday in the first round of the 2008 Mastercard NIT.
UMass, a team that specializes in pushing the tempo and came into the game averaging 82.0 points per game, put up the highest total by an SFA opponent this season. The Minutemen are only the fourth team this season to break 70 points against SFA, and the 20-point margin of defeat, in addition to being the Lumberjacks' largest of the year, is just the fourth time this season that SFA has trailed by more than 10 at any point in a ballgame.
"We didn't play up to our potential tonight," SFA head coach Danny Kaspar said. "We're a better defensive team than that."
After a cold-shooting first half, the Lumberjacks went to the locker room down by eight (33-25), their second-largest halftime deficit of the season.
But SFA came out firing in the second half. Following a turnover on UMass' first possession, leading scorer Josh Alexander cut the basket for a layup off a feed from senior guard Gerald Fonzie. Alexander drained a three on SFA's next touch to make it a 33-30 game with 18:58 remaining.
UMass answered with a basket, but SFA drew to within a point, at 35-34, two possessions later when junior center Matt Kingsly dropped in a layup after canning two free throws on the prior Lumberjack touch.
But that was as close at SFA would come to retaking the lead. The Lumberjacks went cold from the floor and went the next six minutes, 25 seconds without a field goal. Meanwhile, UMass was perfect on its next five shot attempts to race back out to a 13-point edge, 47-34, with 15:08 remaining.
The lead was 18 by the 11:53 mark, when SFA finally broke the shooting slump with a layup by freshman Eddie Williams.
Williams was one of three Lumberjacks to finish in double figures scoring, as he dropped in 10 points with four rebounds -- three coming on offense. Alexander and Kingsley were the other two SFA players to break the 10-point barrier. Alexander finished with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting, and Kingsley added 10. Junior forward Nick Shaw pulled down a team-high nine rebounds, and Alexander added seven. Sophomore point guard Eric Bell dished out five assists.
The game marks just the second time this season for SFA to lose a contest in which its top two scorers -- Alexander and Kingsley -- both reached double figures. It was Alexander's eighth 20-point performance of the season.
For UMass, center Dante Milligan did the most damage. The senior came into Tuesday's game averaging 8.0 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Against SFA, he poured in a career-high 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting and pulled down nine boards. Leading scorer Gary Forbes chased Milligan with 19 points, and Ricky Harris added 16. Etienne Brower hauled in a game-high 12 rebounds.
Three Lumberjack seniors -- Fonzie, Kyle Jacobs and Scott Weaver -- played their final game in an SFA uniform. Fonzie finished with five points on 2-of-4 shooting, including a 3-pointer, and Jacobs and Weaver each pulled down two rebounds.
The loss closes out the most successful season in SFA's history as an NCAA Division I program. SFA captured a share of the 2008 Southland Conference championship -- the first SLC title in program history. The Lumberjacks' 26-6 record is just the fourth 20-win season for the team since joining the D-I ranks in the 1986-87 season. Three of those four campaigns have come under Kaspar. The 26 wins is the best total for SFA in its time as a D-I program and ranks fourth all-time in program history for single-season victories at any level of competition.
-- SFA --
