Wednesday, November 18, 2009

It Was a Good Twenty Minutes

JSU Hoops fan and Gamecockillustrated.com Special Commentator, Chris Yow, provides this outstanding account of the JSU versus UAB game last night:



For 20 minutes last night, the Jacksonville State men's basketball team stood toe-to-toe with the possibly the state's best basketball team. But after the second 20 minutes, the UAB Blazers had doubled up the Gamecocks and took home an 87-62 win in front of a great crowd of 4,218 fans.

After falling behind 14-4 early, mostly due to the early work of Blazers' forward Elijah Millsap, Jax State head coach James Green called time out and rallied his team at the bench.

Green must have said something that lit a fire under the Gamecocks, as the team slowly chipped away at the big lead and overtook the Blazers 25-24 with 8:30 remaining in the first half with a Nick Murphy three-point basket.

The lead would swap hands numerous times before the two teams would go to the locker rooms knotted up at 37.

UAB played very tough on the inside throughout the night, but Jax State was not an easy opponent to say the least. The Gamecocks were physical and made the Blazers work for inside opportunities.

The second half was all about UAB and their ability to score at will, however.

UAB shot a deadly 62.1% from the field in the second half to Jax State's dreadful 25.8%. Those numbers led to 50 second half points by the Blazers and just 25 for the Gamecocks.

Five Blazers scored in double figures. Millsap led all scorers with 18 points, he completed a double-double with 11 rebounds. Blazers' talented point guard Aaron Johnson added 17 points, including going eight-for-eight from the charity stripe.

Jax State put four players in double figures. The most valuable player for the Gamecocks seemed to be Birmingham native Stephen Hall. Hall led the Gamecocks in scoring, along with Trenton Marshall. Both players dropped 14 points on the Blazers defense, but Hall also grabbed 15 boards in the game to lead that statistical category.

Jeremy Bynum added 12 points, making two long balls, including the go-ahead shot in the first half.

Jay-R Stowbridge rounds out the Gamecocks in double figures with 11 points and five assists.

Sean Thurston was held without a rebound the entire night. The junior was not able to be a huge factor after getting into quick foul trouble, but he did add four points and a couple blocked shots on the night.

Saturday is when the men take the court again at Pete Matthews Colisseum. The Gamecocks will play host to Georgia Southern with a 4 p.m. tip-off following the Jax State football win over Eastern Kentucky. After the basketball game, check out the women's volleyball team as they claim the OVC tournament crown with first serve at 7:30 p.m. at the Pete.

1 comment:

  1. Anybody up for all three this Saturday - football, basketball and volleyball? I'm in.

    ReplyDelete