ALEXANDRIA, LA – The No.2 Louisiana State University of Alexandria men's basketball team advanced to the Red River Athletic Conference semifinal with a 77-66 victory over eight-seed Huston-Tillotson University.
"If that wasn't a tournament game, I don't know what is," LSUA Head Coach Dimario Jackson said. "It's hard – first game, new environment, new court. We had to make some adjustments in our timing and our game. Kudos to our guys for being able to grind it out. It wasn't pretty, but it was more right than wrong out there."
The Generals (26-2, 22-2 RRAC) took a six-point lead into halftime after a tightly contested opening 20 minutes. Short runs defined much of the period. While LSUA held the lead for the majority of the first, the Rams (10-17, 10-14 RRAC) kept pace and briefly pulled ahead with under four minutes left in the opening stanza. A five-point run from the Generals put the lead back in the hands of the Purple and Gold.
A 10-point lead, 40-30, early in the second half was negated by a 9-0 run from the Rams. A three from
EJ McQuillan and a pair of free throws from
Jordan Decuir gave LSUA a bit of breathing room, 45-39.
The Purple and Gold reached a double-digit lead three more times over the second. The Rams chipped away at two, before a pair of free throws from McQuillan with 2:46 left gave the Generals their final double-digit advantage.
McQuillan led the Generals with 18 points. He finished 5-for-7 from the field, knocking down four shots from long range. McQuillan also converted four shots at the free throw line. Decuir (14),
Jakemin Abney (13),
Kashie Natt (11), and
Isaiah Howard (11) all reached double-digit points.
Top-seed LSUA takes on four-seed Texas A&M Texarkana on Saturday, March 1, at 3:00 p.m. in the Laborde Earles Coliseum.
The Eagles advanced to the semifinal with an 88-67 victory over five-seed LSU Shreveport. Raymond Moore and Deovaunta Williams recorded 22 points each in the Eagles' victory. They shot 47.2% from the field as a unit. When the Eagles and Generals met in Texarkana, Texas on November 16, LSUA picked up an 86-71 victory. The second meeting between LSUA and TAMUT saw another Generals' victory, but the margin was much slimmer, 77-72, at the Fort in Alexandria.
