Greyhounds earn No. 2 playoff seed

Overtime win over UA-Cossatot seals tourney bye

From ASU MID-SOUTH

asumidsouthsports.com

It took an overtime period, but the Greyhounds secured the second seed for the NJCAA Region 2 Tournament with a hard-fought 84-75 victory over the UA Cossatot Colts Saturday at The Dog House.

With a minute to go before halftime, the Greyhounds held a three-point lead, but the Colts scored 5 unanswered points to lead 39-37 at the break.

Then in the second half, UA Cossatot held a 5-point lead with 1:51 remaining, but the Greyhounds went on a 6-0 run capped by a Jeremiah Jones jumper off the glass in the paint to lead 69-68 with 30.6 seconds left.

The Colts then missed a shot and ASU Mid-South’s Tim Johnson came down with the rebound and was fouled, but a skirmish broke out following the foul that led to two players from UA Cossatot being disqualified and Sam Smith being disqualified for the Greyhounds. UA Cossatot was awarded two free throws and the ball, and made 1-of-2 free throws to tie the game 69-69 with 10.3 seconds remaining.

On the ensuing possession, the Colts turned the ball over and ASU Mid-South had the ball with 7.0 seconds remaining, but the Greyhounds failed to convert and the game went to overtime.

In the extra period, both teams scored before the Greyhounds dominated the rest of the game. On consecutive possessions, Braxton McCuien scored inside, Tim Johnson went to the rim for a dunk, Jailen Anderson weaved his way in for a layup and then hit a three-pointer, and Christian Thompson scored off an offensive rebound to give the Greyhounds an 82-71 lead with 1:36 left to put the game out of reach.

While shooting just 38.2 percent from the field, ASU Mid-South recorded a season- high 31 offensive rebounds on the way to a 54-40 rebounding advantage and forced 24 turnovers while committing only 12.

Christian Thompson led the way for the Greyhounds with his sixth double-double of the season, scoring 22 points and pulling down 14 rebounds. Sam Smith also produced his school-record 14th double- double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Jailen Anderson scored 15 points and J.T. Smith tallied 12 points with a gamehigh 7 assists. The Greyhounds (13-11, 7-3) have secured the second seed which carries a first round bye in the NJCAA Region 2 Tournament set to begin Tuesday at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. ASU Mid-South will play the winner of third-seeded National Park College and sixth-seeded South Arkansas College on Friday at 7:00pm.