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KATY, Texas – The nation’s highest-scoring team got a dose of its own medicine on Friday night, as fourth-seed Northwestern State had no answers for a blistering Stephen F. Austin offensive attack that shot 52 percent from the field en route to a 91-79 win at Merrell Center in the first of two Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament semifinals.
The Lumberjacks (28-4) will appear in the title game for a third straight year when they face the winner of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Sam Houston State on Saturday night with a chance to return to the NCAA Tournament, where they advanced to the third round last year.
“They just made the shots they had to make,” said Northwestern State coach Mike McConathy, whose team (19-12) will host an opening round game in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament next Thursday night. “They answered every run that we made. They answered with big, big shots.”
Leading 45-41 at the half, SFA broke the game open down the stretch as reserve Tanner Clayton scored all eight of his points over a span of 5:06 that allowed the Lumberjacks to finally pull away.
“I’m ecstatic for Tanner Clayton,” said Lumberjacks coach Brad Underwood. “He’s a senior, and I’ve probably been on his backside more in the last week than I have in his time at SFA. “He’s very capable. Tonight, he was at his best. I’m very, very happy for him.”
Clayton was one of several reasons why Underwood had to be pleased with his bench, which combined to score 41 points, including 16 from Jared Johnson. It was Johnson who delivered the decisive blow for SFA when he knocked down his fourth 3-pointer of the evening with 1:15 left to give the Lumberjacks an 89-79 lead.
Fellow reserve Clide Geffard added 10 points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal as he and Johnson were two of five players who hit double figures for the Lumberjacks. Ty Charles led SFA with 16 points, while Jacob Parker added 15 points and 10 rebounds. Conference Player of the Year Thomas Walkup had 13 points and seven assists.
“It’s what we pride ourselves in,” said Underwood.
The Lumberjacks – who led the nation in assists – showed their distribution, as 22 of their 30 field goals were assisted.
Although they allowed Northwestern State to shoot nearly 52 percent from the field, SFA was able to contain explosive Demons guard Zeek Woodley, who scored 17 points but was never able to establish himself into the flow of the game. Woodley did set the Northwestern State single-season record for points in a season, breaking the 38-year-old mark set by Billy Reynolds.
“They played hard defense,” said Woodley. “They just made it uncomfortable for me to shoot.”
“They did a good job of keying in on me and Zeek,” said Northwestern State guard Jalan West, who had 25 points and nine assists. “They made sure that we didn’t beat them.”
Northwestern State stayed in the contest behind the shooting of reserve Sabri Thompson, who scored 16 off the bench, including four of the Demons’ six 3-pointers on the evening.
Friday’s loss was just the third in Northwestern State’s last 14 games, with all three defeats coming at the hands of SFA.