KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Derrick Parker, the NAIA Division I leader in blocked shots, rejected Jamaan Kenner's 3-point attempt with five seconds remaining Thursday to preserve LSU-Shreveport's 66-63 men's basketball victory against Xavier University of Louisiana in the opening round of the Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I National Championship.
The Pilots (26-7), ranked 12th, advanced to a 12:30 p.m. Friday game against fifth-ranked Southern Poly, a 66-60 winner against Cumberlands. The Gold Rush, ranked 21st and in the tournament for the second consecutive year and the sixth time in eight seasons, finished 23-9.
Xavier missed four field goals on the same possession in the final 17 seconds, including two blocked 3-pointers, to cap a roller-coaster game in which the Gold Rush led 10-1 through six minutes, trailed 36-25 at halftime, rallied for a 47-42 lead with 9:52 remaining, then lost the lead for good in the 33rd minute.
Greg Shyne scored 18 points, Parker 13, Cody Walker 12 and Mark Politte 11 for LSUS, which won its seventh in a row and for the 18th time in 19 games. Parker, a first-team NAIA All-American two years ago, grabbed 16 rebounds and blocked six shots.
Isiah Bazile, who had eight points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, blocked Xavier's other late 3-pointer, by Kevin Miller with 17 seconds remaining. Miller and Denzell Erves also missed 2-pointers during the final Gold Rush possession.
Chris Iles scored 20 points, and Erves had 12 points and seven rebounds for Xavier. Wanto Joseph, an XU junior who entered the game with four career 3-pointers, was 3-of-4 from behind to arc and finished with nine points, five assists and no turnovers in 19 reserve minutes.
Xavier played its best in the first 12 minutes of each half, when it outscored LSUS by a combined 36-18. But the Pilots outscored the Gold Rush by a combined 48-27 in the final eight minutes of those periods.
Two shooting streaks moved the Pilots into contention in the first half and into control of the game in the second. LSUS made six consecutive shots from the floor, including four 3-pointers, to turn a 14-9 deficit into a 25-20 lead at 4:51 of the first half. After Xavier made 5-of-6 3-pointers to open the second period with a 22-6 run, the Pilots answered again by hitting five in a row from the floor. Politte's 3-pointer, the only one he made in seven tries, put LSUS ahead to stay at 52-51 with 7:09 remaining and started an 8-0 burst.
Shyne's two free throws with 1:15 remaining gave LSUS a 63-55 lead, but Xavier didn't fold. The Pilots missed 6-of-9 free throws in the final 64 seconds, and 3-pointers by Joseph with 36 seconds remaining and Erves nine seconds later — his first in three seasons at Xavier — trimmed the LSUS lead to three. When Bazile missed a pair of free throws with 25 seconds remaining and Miller rebounded the second, Xavier still had a shot.
Yet free-throw shooting was equally troubling for the XU men, who were 6-of-15, including five consecutive misses in the final 10 minutes. The Gold Rush were fouled three times in the final eight minutes while making baskets — Iles twice and Anthony Simmons once — but Xavier failed to make all three free throws.
Both teams shot less than 40 percent from the floor — LSUS 36.1 percent, Xavier 35.4 — and the Pilots had a 46-42 rebound advantage. The Rush made 11 3-
pointers, equaling its most ever at nationals.
NOTES: It was the final XU game for seniors Iles, Kenner (six points, four rebounds), Cordell Hadnot (no points but a team-high nine rebounds) and Jeremy Lee (no points) . . . Kenner will attend medical school this fall . . . LSUS was a Gulf Coast Athletic Conference rival of Xavier from 2003-10. The Pilots, now a member of the Red River Athletic Conference, lead the series 12-3 (3-0 postseason) . . . Xavier made its most 3-pointers since hitting 13-of-18 in a victory at William Carey on Feb. 2, 2008 . . . Since its second-round upset of unbeaten and top-ranked Sam Houston State in 1973, Xavier is 1-12 at nationals. The lone victory was in 2007 . . . It's the first time since the mid-1980s that Xavier finished with single-digit losses in consecutive seasons.
BOX SCORE
By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS
VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
NASHVILE, Tennessee - The Tennessee State men's and women's track & field teams compete in the 41st annual Morehouse Relays on Friday, March 16 and Saturday, March 17 at B.T. Harvey Stadium in Atlanta.
