SOUTHERN BOUNCES BACK TO DEFEAT JACKSON STATE, 70-58 IN KEY ROAD MATCHUP :: Jags reclaim sole possesion of first place in the SWAC!

Feb. 7, 2006

The Southern Jaguars used a dominating rebounding performance, and balanced scoring to rebound from Saturday night's loss at Grambling, to defeat Jackson State, 70-58 Monday night in Jackson, MS.

Peter Cipriano shot 10-for-12 and had a season-high 20 points, along with seven rebounds, while Chris Alexander added 17 points and seven rebounds, to lead the Jaguars in a dominating performance.

Center Jerrid Campbell added 13 points and six rebounds, and freshman point guard, Steffon Wiley, had a career-high 10 points.

"I'm very proud of the guys and the way they responded, to play a good Jackson team as well as we did," head coach Rob Spivery said.

Southern scored the game's first six points and never trailed. In fact, Jackson State never got closer than six points in either half.

Jackson State's Trey Johnson, the second-best scorer in the conference, had 26 points and Julius Young 11, but the Tigers (11-12, 7-4), who had won five of its six previous games to vault into second place, had their second-lowest total in conference play.

SU shot 48.3 percent (28-for-58), getting 42 points in the lane, and outrebounded Jackson State 42-24.

"A team comes into your building and gets 17 offensive rebounds," Jackson State coach, Tevester Anderson said. "That's a lot. That's unacceptable."

Southern's win, plus Alcorn State's 75-71 upset at Grambling, put the Jaguars back in sole possession of first place in the conference.

The Jaguars (10-11, 9-2 SWAC) are in the hunt for their first regular-season conference championship since 1989-90.

"It's a tremendous bounce-back game for us," Cipriano said. "We had to be focused and see how we could bounce back after a tough loss. We proved we can do that."

Southern will host Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Saturday afternoon at 3:30 pm in the Mini-Dome.