JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – A gritty road effort on Saturday night delivered a 54-51 for Jacksonville University men's basketball in the ASUN Men's Basketball Semifinal over top-seeded Jacksonville State at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
The Dolphins punched a ticket to the ASUN Basketball Final for the first time since 2009.
JU was able to establish an early lead after the two sides traded early buckets and turnovers.
Bryce Workman split a pair of free throws to break an early tie and
Jordan Davis followed that up with a steal and transition layup. Workman had an offensive rebound stickback.
Gyasi Powell had a pullup elbow jumper and
Osayi Osifo stuffed in a dunk and a
Mike Marsh free throw with 11:02 to play in the first gave the Dolphins an eight-point lead, 15-7.
Jacksonville State fought back, but the Dolphins kept them at bay for the rest of the half, going into the break up five, 23-18.
The Gamecocks came out of the locker room hot to start the second half, scoring the first eight points of the half to take the lead for the first time since just a few minutes into the game.
JU got three-pointers from Jordan and
Tyreese Davis, as well as a tough runner from
Kevion Nolan to battle back and keep JSU from extending its lead.
Nolan, playing in front of family and friends again just minutes from his childhood home, started to come alive late. He buried a three-pointer with 6:12 to play to finally tie the game again at 41. After JSU sank a three to retake the lead, Marsh drew a foul heading into the final media timeout. He toed the line and swished both to cut it to one, 44-43. After a stop, Nolan drew a foul and sank both freebies to take the lead, 45-44.
Jordan Davis picked up another steal and Nolan swished another three to push the lead to multiple possessions. JSU managed a few buckets, but JU continued to draw fouls and get to the line and made every free throw they attempted. After Nolan hit two more from the charity stripe to make it a three-point lead with 5.1 seconds left, the Dolphin defense rose to the occasion one more time, prevented the Gamecocks from even taking a final shot to try and tie it.
UP NEXT
Jacksonville heads to Louisville, Ky. to face Bellarmine, the two-seed in the West Division, in the ASUN Basketball Championship Final on Tuesday night at 5 p.m.
COACH'S COMMENTS
NUMBERS YOU SHOULD KNOW
- Jacksonville made its final 10 free throw attempts of the game
- JU held the top three-point shooting team in the ASUN to 22 percent shooting from deep (6-27)
- Kevion Nolan led all scorers with 19 points
- The 21 wins for JU is the most in a season for the Dolphins since the 1985-86 season, the last time Jacksonville made the NCAA Tournament
- Jordan Mincy has the second-most wins for a first year head coach in JU basketball history, trailing only Tom Wasdin, who won 22 his first year in 1970-71
