SAGU Snaps Pilots Win Streak
February 18, 2012
SHREVEPORT, La. - The no. 19 LSU Shreveport men's basketball team had their NAIA leading 11-game win streak snapped on Saturday night at the Shaffer Center by the Southwestern Assemblies of God University Lions 64-59.
The SAGU Lions (20-7, 14-7 RRAC) jumped out to a 17-7 lead after the first six minutes of the contest but the Pilots would rally their way back through the half in route to a Rydell Harris buzzer-beater to lift the Pilots to a 30-28 halftime lead, his only bucket of the contest.
SAGU did not waste any time as they got off to a hot start in the second half with a 9-0 run to take the lead but the run was stymied by a Mark Politte layup, the first LSUS bucket of the second half, to bring the Pilots with in five with 16:28 to play. Politte finished with nine points.
The Pilots (19-7, 17-4 RRAC) continued to battle their way back and evened the score with SAGU at the midway point of the half at 41. SAGU kept pace with the 19th ranked Pilots and had a two-point lead that grew after the Lions converted on a pair of technical free throws and the one of the double-bonus shots from the charity stripe. LSUS' Isiah Bazile was charged with a technical-foul following a foul call against him as the Pilots never could recover going down by five with 1:06 to play after the three of four were converted from the free-throw line.
Politte drained a big three as the Pilots attempted to crawl their way back with 42 second to play and later Greg Shyne drained a rainmaker with a game-high 18 points to trim the SAGU lead down to 61-50 with 15 seconds to go in regulation. The Lions would go on to make three more free-throws before the end of the game to stop the LSUS comeback.
Derrick Parker scored 10 points before fouling out late in the second half while Bazile had a 11-point, 10-rebound performance before fouling out as well. By then though, the Pilots needed the three-point shooters on the floor who nearly brought them back into the contest.
The Pilots out rebounded the Lions 37-30 but committed four more turnovers 18-14. The Lions were fierce from the free-throw line in the second half converting on 20 of 25 while the Pilots were a slim four of 13 from the line.
LSUS shot just 37% from the field and the Lions were not much better at 40%. The LSUS defense held Dominique Rambo to just seven points while only allowing SAGU to have two shooter reach double figures; Ronald Horne (17) and Mike Nwelue had 13 off the bench.
The loss does not end the Pilots chances at still obtaining the regular season crown; it just makes the hill a lot steeper to climb. LSUS now trails the OLLU Saints by one game in the standings while Texas Wesleyan trails by a game and a half. It is still anybody's race with the top three teams separated by a game and a half. The Saints and Rams will meet on Monday night in Fort Worth.
The Pilots will travel to Hawkins, Texas, to play Jarvis Christian on Monday for their next game at 7:30.
