Guard Chandler Jackson throws a pass to make the play. Jackson finished the game against South Alabama with 13 points and 7 assists.

With a 99% win percentage and six minutes to play, Arkansas State lost their second game against South Alabama to go 7-7 in Sun Belt play.

Despite the end result, the game started hopeful as the Red Wolves scored first with guard Christian Harmon who drilled in his first of many threes of the game. 

The Red Wolves would miss all of their shots until the first media timeout where they came out with an immediate three by Harmon followed by a contested layup by forward Aly Tounkara. This started the momentum shift in favor of A-State. 

This shift caused the Red Wolves to fill up the red balloon, just in time for Valentine’s Day. A-State primarily shot threes during the first half, making 11 of their 22, Harmon with six of those, including three in a row for A-State points. 

While A-State filled the 3-point balloon with 16 made threes, the team shot a total of 41, resulting in a 39% success rate.

During the first half, Harmon scored 20 points in A-State’s 41-32 lead. 

A-State continued to lead during the second half, going up as much as 18 points with six and a half minutes of regulation. 

However, costly turnovers and fouls slowly turned the tide in favor of the Jaguars. Soon, the visiting team was within two points with only three minutes to play. 

While both teams were going to the line to shoot a free-throw, A-State’s make percentage wasn’t nearly as good as South Alabama’s, a 67% make rate versus the Jaguars’ 70% rate. Even though both made the same amount, 20, the Red Wolves shot 10 more, costing them a lead and a point differential. 

With six seconds left in regulation, a missed free-throw by guard Matt Hayman would put A-State up four points and the ball in the hands of South Alabama’s best shooter. 

“Credit goes to South Alabama. They showed a lot of composure. Never broke, regardless of what the score was. For us, obviously, the last seven minutes was a disaster,” Pannone said. 

Jaguars guard Chaze Harris, who scored 30 points this game and 38 points in the last outing against the Red Wolves, rebounded the ball and made a 27 foot on the move three, his third three of the season, with Hayman on his heels. 

Hayman’s presence was enough for the referees to call a foul on him, however, and Harris was able to make it a tied ballgame and push the game into overtime. 

“There’s just stunned disbelief inside First National Bank arena right now,” Graham Doty, one of the game announcers, said during the broadcast. 

In their second matchup of the season, South Alabama, once again, pushed A-State into overtime.

The only points the Red Wolves scored in overtime consisted of two made free throws, one from guard Chandler Jackson and one from Tounkara, and a three from none other than Harmon, giving him 33 points on the game, tying the Red Wolves’ season high with Jackson from Missouri State.

Unfortunately, five points during the five minutes of overtime wasn’t enough to beat the Jaguars as the Red Wolves fell 92-88. This score reflects the same deficit from their previous meetup in January where A-State fell 91-87 in an eerily similar fashion. 

“I think our mental focus was on the way that regulation finished, which impacted the way that we played. We weren’t playing to win in overtime, and that’s something we have to be able to do,” Pannone said. 

Statistically, many of the Red Wolves put up good numbers and broke their career bests. Jalen Hampton was one of those players, recording a career-best 16 rebound game with Tounkara who was right behind with 15. The two grabbed 31 of the total 54 rebounds during the game, marking one of the high points of the team’s play.

It was primarily turnovers and shooting percentage that aided in a loss, recording 18 turnovers which resulted in 23 points for the Jaguars. 

Head Coach Ryan Pannone said with close loss games, composure is something they need to work on in order to win games. 

“Just handling the moment, understanding that mistakes are going to come and that you can’t allow one to become another.” Pannone said. “Somebody makes a bad decision, and they compound that instead of having the ability to recognize the mistake that they made and be able to learn from it and handle it with composure and move on and not let one mistake become two.”

The Red Wolves are 7th place in the Sun Belt Conference and are 2.5 games behind the Jaguars, who are tied for first with Appalachian State, with four games to play. 

A-State goes on the road to play the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, who are 9th in the Sun Belt, at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Categories: Sports