Jaguars win in overtime

• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Mar 9, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Playing to milk the clock led to Southern squandering every point of a 13-point lead in the final seven minutes. But playing to win lifted the Jaguars to a 76-71 overtime win over Texas Southern on Saturday.

Geri Guillory made two jumpers in the lane and Chris Davis made a 3-pointer on the left wing to power the Jaguars in the extra period in front of 671 fans.

In overtime, Southern missed only one shot, its first, and went 3-for-4 at the free-throw line after struggling there at the end of regulation.

“The last three minutes of regulation, we did everything we could do to give them chances,” Southern coach Rob Spivery said. “We talked, going into overtime, about getting back to playing good basketball. Let’s play to win it instead of trying to hold onto it.

Davis led Southern (11-18, 9-9 Southwestern Athletic Conference) with 20 points, six rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Freshman Barry Honore had his second-best scoring output in SWAC play, finishing with 17 points and six rebounds. Plus, Steffon Wiley had 15 points — his first double-figure scoring output since Feb. 9 — and a season-high seven assists. And Joseph Jack had 11 points and four rebounds and tied a season best with four assists.

“This was a good win for us going into the tournament,” Davis said. “We knew Texas Southern would play very hard, with their season on the line. … In overtime, I knew we were going to pull it out.”

The Jaguars, who closed the season by winning three straight games after a nightmarish six-game losing plunge, finished in fifth place in the SWAC.

SU will face fourth-seeded Jackson State (12-19, 10-8) in a SWAC tournament quarterfinal at 8 p.m. Thursday in Birmingham, Ala. The teams split during the regular season, with SU winning by 16 on its home floor and Jackson State winning by 14 on its home floor.

“We talked about winning six in a row to make up for the six losses in a row,” Spivery said. “Should we be able to do that (win all three games in the SWAC tournament), we’ll finish as champs.”

Sollie Norwood hit an off-balance 3-pointer with 4.8 seconds left to send the game into overtime and finished with 20 points and six rebounds to lead TSU (7-24, 6-12), which erased a five-point deficit in the last half-minute of regulation.

Mathew Miller added 18 points and six rebounds, while Onyekautukwu Abiakam had 12 points and eight rebounds and David Burrell 11 points, nine assists, four rebounds and four steals.