Entering matchup with Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Southern’s defense leads the way in the SWAC

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- The Southern men’s basketball team faced a lot of uncertainty going into this season.

The team had just two returning starters from last season and no proven scorer in the frontcourt.

The biggest key to the team’s success, coach Roman Banks said, was going to be its ability to play defense. A road-heavy nonconference schedule against mostly more talented teams wasn’t the best gauge of whether this team would play defense the way Banks’ teams have customarily played it.

But four games into the Southwestern Athletic Conference schedule, the Jaguars (6-12, 3-1) are playing the best defense in the league as they prepare to host Arkansas-Pine Bluff (3-14, 0-3) at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the F.G. Clark Activity Center.

Southern leads the SWAC in scoring defense (55.0 points per game), field goal-percentage defense (36.5 percent) and blocked shots (4.8 per game).

“We’re going to ...

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