JACKSONVILLE, Alabama – Balanced scoring and a dominant rebounding performance lifted the Tennessee State men’s basketball team to a 78-53 road victory over Jacksonville State on Saturday at the Pete Mathews Coliseum. The win improves TSU to 15-6 on the season, tripling last year’s win total of five.
Tahjere McCall (Philadelphia, Pa.) led five TSU players scoring in double figures with 18 points to go with eight rebounds, while Wayne Martin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) recorded his ninth double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Marcus Roper (Ft. Walton Beach, Fla.) and Xavier Richards (St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands) scored 12 points apiece with Keron DeShields (Baltimore, Md.) adding 10. Aiding the offense was Armani Chaney (Chicago, Ill.), who led the Tigers with a career-high five assists.
The Tigers (15-6, 6-2 OVC) held a 42-27 rebounding edge over Jacksonville State (8-17, 4-6) and finished with a 44-10 advantage in points in the paint.
“I thought we came out a little sluggish in the first half offensively, but once we stopped turning the ball over, we were able to get some separation,” second-year Head Coach Dana Ford said. “Our defense was pretty consistent for 40 minutes. I thought their guys played really hard. They’re a little bit short handed today, and we were able to take advantage of that.”
After falling behind early, McCall drove the lane and delivered a two-handed dunk to level the scoring at 6-6. Later on, the Tigers went on an 8-0 run capped by back-to-back three-pointers from Roper for a 19-10 lead at the midway point of the first half.
When the Gamecocks cut the TSU lead down to four at 31-27, the Tigers reeled off seven-consecutive points for their largest lead of the half of 11 points with the score at 38-27 in the final minute. Jacksonville State’s Erik Durham finished a layup on the last possession of the half to put the score at 38-29 through 20 minutes.
TSU kept Jacksonville State without a field goal in the first 5:37 of the second half as the visitor’s edge ballooned to 53-31. McCall came up with another dunk on a putback for a 58-39 lead with just under 10 minutes left.
The Tigers led by double figures for the entire second half and outscored Jacksonville State by a 40-24 in the closing 20 minutes.
Jacksonville State, which shot 32.7 percent from the field, was led by 13 points from DelFincko Bogan.
TSU is back in action on Thursday, Feb. 4, for a home game versus Eastern Kentucky at the Gentry Center at 7 p.m.
GAME NOTES: TSU moves to 16-11 in the all-time series versus Jacksonville State… TSU tripled last year’s win total of five games… TSU improves to 8-5 away from home and 6-5 in true road games… Wayne Martin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) recorded his ninth double-double of the season and third of Ohio Valley Conference play.
Tennessee State Head Coach Dana Ford
“That makes us a better team when opponents can’t zero in on a couple guys. We know we have guys who are capable of big nights, and there are going to be times when we need them to have big nights. Tonight was just a little bit more of a balanced attack and we need to get some of our younger guys who aren’t playing as many minutes a little confidence heading down the stretch.”
•On TSU’s Balanced Scoring
“I think it was huge. Our guys showed a lot of character tonight. Just two nights ago, we had a heartbreaking loss and we could have hung our head and let that affect us, but I thought we got past that.”
•On coming back from a loss at Tennessee Tech
“We’re happy. If you want to have a chance to win the league, you have to win on the road. Now, it’s up to us to go back home and protect our home court with three straight home games.”
•On a convincing road win
BOX SCORE
COURTESY TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS
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