Jaguars look for victory at JSU
With eight games to go in a basketball season that has been, to this point, charmed, magical and somewhat reminiscent of the good old days at Southern, first-year coach Roman Banks keeps saying the same thing.
Even he didn’t think the Jaguars would be so far along, so quickly.
“I think everybody is surprised to where we are as a team. I’ll be the first to say that I am (surprised),” Banks said. “But I’ll say this: I have a lot of confidence in those guys. Like I say, they’re not the great, talented guys. But they’re a good group of guys that want to achieve something.”
They have achieved plenty already.
Southern, which won a grand total of six games in the Southwestern Athletic Conference over the past two years, is alone in second place, two games behind Mississippi Valley State (which is 10-0 in conference play so far) and two games ahead of Prairie View and Texas Southern, who are tied for third.
Saturday night, the Jaguars won at Grambling for the first time since 2000, crawling back into the game after falling behind by 16 points, then winning at the end with great defense and a standout night from point guard Jameel Grace.
At 7:30 p.m. Monday in Jackson, Miss., they’ll go for another achievement. Southern (12-11, 8-2) will try to win at Jackson State (5-17, 3-7) for the first time since 2007.
The Jaguars had lost eight consecutive games in the overall series with JSU before the two teams met Jan. 9 in Baton Rouge, where SU held the Tigers to 26-percent shooting in a 68-37 blowout.
JSU, one of the SWAC’s most consistent winners in recent years, have tumbled down the standings into a five-way tie for sixth. The Tigers lost leading scorer Jenirro Bush early in conference play, and they’ve dropped three consecutive games, including Saturday’s 57-46 home loss to Alcorn.
Meanwhile, Southern hasn’t been above .500 this late in a season since 2005-06, when Rob Spivery’s first team made it to 12-11 en route to a 20-13 record and the SWAC title.
So this looks like an easy win for SU, right?
Well, it’s rarely easy.
Of the Jaguars’ eight conference wins, only three have come by more than 10 points.
The team still hasn’t won back-to-back games on the road this season — and if Southern is to pull off that caper Monday, it will probably do so without one of its best players at full strength.
Derick Beltran, who leads the team in scoring at 12.3 points per game, played only three minutes in the second half of Saturday’s game at Grambling. He suffered a low ankle sprain late in the team’s win over Alcorn State on Jan. 29, and though he tried to tough it out — Beltran had 11 points in 23 minutes — he eventually walked to the locker room during the second half.
Beltran was walking after Saturday’s game and said he plans to play Monday.
“Beltran’s a good player, but we can’t just sit here and put our heads down,” Grace said. “We can’t predict the future, so whoever comes off the bench, you’ve just got to step up.”
This season, they’ve all done a pretty good job with that.