Official Game Statistics
MOBILE, Ala. -- Demetric Bennett became the 13th player in South Alabama history to score 1,000 career points, tallying a game-high 24 Saturday night, as the Jaguars knocked off Middle Tennessee 75-61 in Sun Belt Conference basketball action at the Mitchell Center. At 9-3, the Jags equaled the 1983-84 team for the most wins in school history before Christmas.
Brandon Davis added 20 points, while Domonic Tilford chipped in 13 points. Josh Sain and Desmond Yates led Middle Tennessee with 13 points apiece.
South Alabama, 2-0 in league play after its fifth straight win, fell behing only once during the game, but could never really pull away from the Blue Raiders (4-7, 1-1). Trailing 13-12 with 9:04 left in the first half, the Jaguars took the lead for good when Tilford keyed an 11-2 run. He hit a pair of free throws to start the surge, then finished it off with a three-pointer that made the score 23-15 with 3:40 remaining.
The Jaguars went into the locker room with its first double-digit lead of the game, 30-20, after Bennett hit a jumper with 52 seconds to play. The senior would have earned his milestone before halftime had a three-point attempt not rattled out as the horn sounded, leaving him just shy at 997 points.
It didn’t take long for history to come though, and it came in style. Three minutes and one second into the second stanza, Bennett got ahead on a fastbreak and slammed home a dunk while being fouled. He calmly sank the ensuing free throw for an even thousand. Ironically, he converted another three-point play 18 seconds later to put the Jaguars ahead 38-24.
From there, Middle Tennessee closed to within nine on three occasions, but could never get any closer. The margin reached 15 at 68-53 with 2:53 left before Head Coach Ronnie Arrow cleared his bench.
"I thought we executed at the right times," Arrow said. “We got some fastbreaks on the press and created open shots. We rebounded the ball well tonight with 11 offensive boards in the second half. It was nice to see Brandon stay out of foul trouble and Domonic hit some key buckets. But in the end, Demetric and Daon (Merritt) are the glue of this team. The bottom line is we are 9-3 overall and 2-0 in the conference and now we get a couple of days off for Christmas."
Bennett finished the night with 1,008 career points, attributing most of his success to the point guards he has played with, including Merritt the last two years. “Daon and I have started gelling this year, but most of my teammates have been looking for me the past few games,” he said. “Tonight I simply let the game come to me.”
The 20-plus-point effort was the third straight, and seventh in 12 games, for Bennett. Merritt finished with a team-high seven assists, while Davis fell short of a double-double with nine rebounds. DeAndre Coleman paced the Jaguars on the boards with 11 after grabbing a career-high 18 on Thursday.
South Alabama returns to campus Christmas night to begin preparations for the Jacksonville game next Saturday. A win would make this Jaguar team the first to have 10 wins before the end of December.
