FRESNO, Calif. ? Junior Demetric Bennett’s 22 second half points sparked the Jaguars to a 67-63 season opening victory over University of California at Irvine in the Basketball Travlers Classic at Fresno. Bennett, who had a career-high 27 points, along with junior Daon Merritt and senior Carlos Smith all scored double figures.
With game in doubt with under a minute to play, the Anteaters got a clutch jumper by Patrick Sanders as the shot clock was winding down with 35 seconds to play. A 30-second time out by USA, preceded two key free throws by Smith, giving the Jags a 64-60 lead with 23 seconds left.
UCI’s Adam Templeton hit his final 3-pointer of his team-high 17 points with 17 seconds left, cutting the deficit to 64-63. One-of-two free throws by Bennett gave the Jags a 65-63 lead with 15 seconds left.
After a timeout by USA, UCI’s Marcus McIntosh threw an errant pass that Merritt stole and would of had an easy layup, but was intentionally fouled by Templeton with 2.2 seconds left. Merritt made both free throws and USA inbounded the ball and ran out the clock for the win.
“We are very fortunate to win the game tonight,” Jaguar head coach John Pelphrey said. “Demetric (Bennett) had one of the best performances I have ever seen tonight. I give our kids credit, they hung in there and pulled out the win.”
Bennett opened the game with first trey of the season just 30 seconds into the contest. UCI tied the game at three on a trey by Patrick Sanders at the 16:56 mark. Cal-Irvine tied the game for the first time at the 9:46 mark on a long trey by Chris Osborn, 14-14.
USA built a 11-5 lead on a trey by Smith at the 13:25 mark. The Anteaters kept the game close as both teams committed a lot of turnovers in their first games of the season.
The Jaguars proceeded to go on a 7-0 run capped by a layup by Merritt of a steal by sophomore Brandon Davis at the 4:50 mark. Two treys, including a half-ending 3-pointer by Adam Templeton tied the game at 23 going into the half.
For the half, USA shot 40.9 percent on 9-of-22 from the floor and 5-of-15 from the 3-point line. UCI countered with a 8-for-18 performance from the field and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. The Anteaters held a 13-9 lead on the boards and were 3-of-4 from the charity stripe as USA did not attempt a free throw in the half.
The main stat in the opening half was the turnovers as USA committed 12 turnovers, but countered with 12 steals, while UCI committed 16 turnovers and only had four steals. Merritt had seven points at half to lead the Jags, while Sanders had five for UCI.
The second half was a complete different story as both teams cut down the turnovers and upped the field goal percentage.
“We knew we had to play good basketball and we did in the second half,” Pelphrey said. “We only turned the ball over six times in the half.”
UCI opened the half with first bucket and its first lead of the game on a layup by Darren Fells. UCI followed that with a 3-pointer by Templeton to go up five with just over 19 minutes to play.
Bennett then took the game over as he scored the Jaguars’ next 11 points to tie the game at 34 with 16:28 left. A jumper by Merritt gave USA its first lead of the half at the 15:19 mark. Smith followed with a trey and a jumper by sophomore Trajinski Grigsby gave the Jags a 41-34 lead with just over 13 minutes to play.
USA built an 11-point lead with 6:04 to play on the old-fashion 3-point play by Bennett.
UCI then went on a 12-3 run to cut the deficit to 60-58 with 1:04 to play. UCI made most of the deficit up at the free throw line, going 10-for-12 during that span. A huge jumper by Bennett ended the run giving USA a 62-58 lead with 47 seconds to play.
USA will now face host Fresno State on Saturday at 10 p.m. Central time.
