If the Southern men’s basketball team felt like it didn’t play its best game Saturday when it hosted Alabama A&M, then it can take heart that another opportunity presents itself at the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament.
Southern gets a rare do-over Thursday when the fourth-seeded Jaguars play a quarterfinal game against fifth-seeded Alabama A&M. The game will start about 8:30 p.m.
It is the last men’s quarterfinal during the first two days of the tournament held at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. Either Southern or Alabama A&M will advance to play a semifinal game at 2 p.m. Friday.
All SWAC men’s tournament games will be webcast on ESPN+, including Saturday’s championship game that will be simulcast on ESPNU.
In addition to splitting two games with second-seeded Grambling, Southern won games in Baton Rouge against Alcorn and No. 3 Jackson State. The only tournament team Southern (15-16, 11-7 SWAC) failed to beat during the regular season was Alabama A&M, which won 82-61 in Huntsville, Alabama, and 68-65 on Saturday in Baton Rouge.
“I don’t even want to judge my team on that game because this was just a strange day,” Southern coach Sean Woods said of Saturday’s game, which tipped off two hours past its scheduled start time because of a power outage. “I can’t go at my team after that. It was strange for both teams and we got the short end of it.
“There’s no use in griping about it. We’ve got three games (in the tournament), and there’s not a team in our league we can’t beat. We just have to go do it.”
Alabama A&M (14-17, 10-8) shot well above its season averages in both regular-season games against Southern. On Feb. 4, the Bulldogs shot 62% from the field and made nine 3-pointers. The Bulldogs were on the mark again Saturday, shooting 56.5% while knocking down 11 3-pointers.
“We have a hand in their face, so I don’t know why they shoot so well against us,” Woods said. “They get up for us, and you can’t blame them. We just have to match their energy.”
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