JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – For Tennessee Tech basketball coach
Mike Sutton, March Madness unofficially started on Saturday.
His Golden Eagles were not concerned with the Ohio Valley
Conference Tournament next week. Instead, Tech faced a one-game,
all-or-nothing battle at Jacksonville State just to get into the
tournament.
It took a school record at the free throw line, but now, after
clobbering the Gamecocks 91-74 in Pete Mathews Coliseum Saturday
afternoon, March Madness can officially begin for Sutton’s
squad.
"It was like Texas hold 'em, we were all in,” Sutton said.
“We were in tournament mode. For us, it's survive and
advance. We made it. You have to earn your spot in the OVC
tournament, and we earned it."
Sutton said his team’s game plan was to attack the
Gamecocks.
"We did a good job of attacking inside,” Sutton said.
“We scored a lot of points in the paint. We wanted to the get
ball to the rim and get to the free throw line, and we did a great
job of that."
The Golden Eagles set a school record by hitting 96.7 percent at
the free throw line, going 29-for-30. It broke the previous record
of 95.7 percent for a 22-for-23 effort against Southern Miss in
1984-85.
"I was in charge of coaching free throws tonight," Sutton joked
afterward.
Tech (12-17/6-12 OVC) claimed the No. 8 seed for the OVC
Tournament, and will advance to play at No. 1 seed (UT Martin or
Morehead State) next Tuesday night. For Jacksonville State
(11-17/5-13), the season is finished.
Daniel Northern led Tech with 22 points and eight rebounds,
including 10-for-10 at the free throw line.
“I had a nightmare about coming down here,” said
Northern. “Last year I was 4-of-14 from the free throw line,
and I said I would not miss a free throw, especially when
it’s a playoff game.”
Kevin Murphy had 21 points and six rebounds, hitting all six of his
charity tosses.
Tech also got double-digit scoring from Will Barnes with 12 points,
and a solid effort from Elijah Muhammad with seven points, seven
rebounds and six assists.
“We had some good practices coming into this game,”
Muhammad said. “We all knew how bad we needed this
win.”
DJ Lindsay added seven points in nine minutes, and Bassey Inameti
had eight points, three rebounds and two blocked shots.
"The biggest asset we have is depth," Sutton said.
The Golden Eagles connected on 53.6 percent (14-for-29) from the
field, overcoming a 2-for-12 performance from long range. Tech also
had a 36-27 margin in rebounds.
"We have great expectations of our experienced players, and Daniel
and Ra’Shun (Bryant) did a great job tonight," Sutton said.
Bryant stepped in and played 12 crucial minutes when Northern
slipped into foul trouble before halftime.
Jacksonville State had balanced scoring, with four players in
double figures. Nick Murphy led with 18 and five rebounds, going
10-for-14 at the free throw line. Jeremy Bynum scored 15, Stephen
Hall had 14 and Brandon Crawford contributed 12 points.
After building a 12-point first half lead with four minutes to play
in the first half, the Golden Eagles had to withstand a 9-0 JSU run
that made it a tight contest heading toward halftime. When DeAndre
Bray made two free throws with four seconds to play, the Golden
Eagles settled for a two-point lead at the break, 43-41.
The lead was sliced to one point early in the second half, but JSU
never caught up, and Tech used a 7-0 run to regain momentum four
minutes into the period. The Golden Eagles got their margin to
double digits when Alfred Jones hit two free throws to make it
64-54 with 9:24 to play.
Hitting 59 percent of their shots in the second half, the Golden
Eagles continued to build on their lead and managed their largest
lead of the contest with 4:28 remaining. That’s when
Inameti’s jumper made it 81-62.
Tech and JSU met in the first OVC game of the regular season (on
December 6 in Cookeville), and the last. The Gamecocks claimed a
16-point win in the first game, and 84 days later Tech avenged the
loss, completing a 33-point turnaround with the 17-point win.