Top Seed SFA Sinks the Islanders, Will Meet UTSA in Championship on Sunday
KATY, Texas ? Stephen F. Austin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi concluded a fantastic day of State Farm Southland Conference Tournament basketball with an equally incredible finish Friday night at the Merrell Center. The last of four men’s and women’s semifinal games on the day, Kevin Palmer missed an acrobatic and possible game-tying three-point shot as the final buzzer sounded to give the No. 1-seeded Lumberjacks a come-from-behind, 63-60 victory over the No. 4 Islanders.
With the win, the Lumberjacks advance to Sunday’s championship game where they will take on No. 6 UTSA, who earlier upset Nicholls State, at noon. The game will be nationally televised live on ESPN2 with a 12:03 p.m. opening tip.
After trailing for most of the opening 16 minutes of the second half, Stephen F. Austin grabbed hold of the lead with just 3:33 remaining as 2009 Southland Player of the Year Matt Kingsley converted a Josh Alexander block into a layup and a 57-55 lead. The Lumberjacks extended their lead to no more than three points for the rest of regulation. Poised with a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, A&M-Corpus Christi inbounded the ball with seven seconds left, used a dribble-and-dish to get the ball to Palmer whose shot clanked off the front iron.
Stephen F. Austin began cutting down what at one point was a seven-point Islander lead with 11 minutes remaining, and the Islanders’ lead fluctuated from two-to-six points until Kingsley and Co. took over late.
Unlike earlier tournament games that saw a scoring slowdown near halftime, the final semifinal of the day featured a tightly-contested first half that came to a close just after the clock reached 0:00. Fouled in the act of shooting a three-pointer at the final buzzer, Palmer converted 2-of-3 free throws to break a 34-34 tie and give his team the edge heading into the locker room.
While the Islanders had the lead at the midway point, both teams saw their fair share of time ahead on the scoreboard early. The Lumberjacks twice held a seven-point advantage, the last coming with 13:24 left in the half after a pair of free throws from Kingsley. A&M-Corpus Christi held a three-point advantage three times, the last coming with 7:20 following a jump shot from Benson Akpan. In all there were eight lead changes and five ties in the first half.
Kingsley led all scorers with 26 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field and an 8-for-9 day from the free throw line. Alexander added 14 points and Eric Bell, who didn’t score, finished the game with seven assists and zero second-half turnovers. Shamar Coombs shouldered a large amount of the load for the Islanders, scoring 19 points, including a 4-fo-4 day from beyond the arc. Demond Watt shot 7-for-9 from the field for 16 points and also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Palmer finished with 13 points, five rebounds and four assists.