Nov. 3, 2007

Final Stats

BATON ROUGE - Southern University had four players score in double-figures, led by juniors Chris Davis' 19 points and Steffon Wiley's 14, in leading the SU Jaguars to a 72-62 win over NAIA, Tougaloo College, in an exhibition game Saturday evening at the FG Clark Activity Center on the Southern campus.

For Southern, Davis scored his 19 points on seven of 10 shooting, including three of six from behind the 3-pt arc. Wiley hit four of 10 shots, and made all four free throw attempts. Red-shirt sophomore, Jazz Williams, added 13 points, and was three of five from long range. Senior Joe Holliday, who missed most of last season with two arthritic hips, scored 12 points on four of eight shooting (four of six from the 3-pt). Freshman center, Barry Honore' scored eight points and had four rebounds in his collegiate debut. Joe Jack led all SU rebounders with eight.

SU out rebounded the Bulldogs 39 to 35, but the difference in the game could have been the 3-pt shooting, as the Jags shot a blistering 52% (12 of 23) from behind the 3-pt. The Jags also outscored Tougaloo 23-0 in the paint.

Both teams struggled from the free throw line, as SU converted 10 of 19 attempts (52.6%), while TC converted on just 10 of 18 (55.6%) attempts from the charity stripe.

The Bulldogs took advantage of some early Jaguar jitters, and jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead. SU's Joe Holliday hit a 3-pointer at the 18:45 mark for SU's first score. SU then went on a role led by Steffon Wiley's two free throws, and back-to-back buckets by Chris Davis, one a three, to give the Jags a 12-7 lead heading into the first timeout. SU opened up its largest lead with 3:14 left in the first half, leading 41-29. SU took a 41-31 lead into the half.

The second half started much like the first half ended - with the Jags hot and hitting good high percentage shots. The Jags pushed their lead to 18, at 54-36 with 13:08 remaining, before the Bulldogs made a run led by the shooting of Jeremy Cable and Keithdrick Harris.

Harris made two free throw with 11:47 remaining to get Tougaloo back to within 10 points at 54-44, but TC could not get any closer, the Jags were able to hold off the visitors and hold on for a 72-62 final score.

For Tougaloo, Keithdrick Harris led four Bulldog scorers in double-figures. Harris scored a team-high 18 points and had eight rebounds. Jeremy Cable added 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Jermaine Hodges scored 13 points and DeMorris Summers added 10 points.

Southern will open the regular-season starting with the two-day Coors Classic Tournament Nov. 10-11 at Southern Methodist University. The Jags will play SMU at 7:35 pm on November 10th, and will play Paul Quinn at 2:00 pm on November 11th.