Jemison carries SBU into Sunday’s title game
Conor Nicholl
KANSAS CITY, Mo.— Deon Davis was very surprised.
Davis, a starting SBU forward, looked up at the scoreboard in the final minutes of Southwest Baptist’s second round MIAA matchup against Northwest Missouri State and couldn’t believe the number of points next to teammate’s Jason Jamison’s name – 25.
“I was like, wow he is really playing well right now,” Davis said. “He was a huge plus for our team tonight.”
And on a night where SBU saw little production from four of its top scorers, it was Jemison who kept Northwest at bay and put the Bearcats into the championship with a 65-63 win.
Northwest effectively corralled SBU forward Jim Grabowski (0 points), Davis (5) and 7-foot-2 center Frans Steyn (7), but didn’t have an answer for Jemison, a player who looks very similar in size and stature to the Bulldogs’ Matt Brock.
Like Brock, Jemison lives from behind the three-point stripe, and tonight, he couldn’t miss. He finished with 27 points (no one on either side had more than 15) and sunk 7 of 15 three-pointers, including several that took the momentum from Northwest.
“Every shot he took uplifted us and built confidence,” Davis said.
Jemison, the third-leading scorer for the Bearcats entering the night, usually plays third fiddle to Pace and Steyn.
Jemison, though, has also been one to shoot a lot, but was not in the top 10 among the conference’s leaders in three-point shooting, hitting only 31.2 percent of his shots.
The first two times against Northwest, Jemison scored close to his season average of 11 points, but tonight, he couldn’t miss.
“When he shoots like this, it makes things tough for us,” Northwest head coach Steve Tappmeyer said. “It gives them three weapons and can really make things difficult.”
Jemison also made things hard for Northwest on the defensive end, containing guards Addae Houston and Xzavier Gaines.
“We first liked him because of his ability to shoot,” SBU head coach Jeff Guiot said. “He can shoot and likes to shoot. There was back to back games were he only took three shots and we almost rushed him to the hospital. He was trying to be the complete player. But his offense picks up when he plays well on defense.”
Jemison began heating up in the second half. SBU had only a one-point lead in the first half as Jamison sunk two of four treys.
But his defense picked up in the second half, helping his offense, keying the run that started the second half that gave SBU control the rest of the game.
“He doesn’t need much encouragement to keep shooting,” Guiot said. “We recognized that he had the hot hand and we kept feeding him the ball. That was something we did very well tonight.”
In a 51 second stretch, Jemison nailed two threes, extending the Bearcats lead from 27-26 to 33-28. His second three started a 13-6 run that provided SBU with plenty of cushion.
“We try to focus on eliminating runs,” Tappmeyer said. “And we couldn’t do that in the second half. They had some runs in the second half and then when they got up by 16 or 18 points.”
Jemison hit three more threes in a seven-minute stretch in the second half, further extending SBU’s advantage.
His final three provided SBU with a 58-42 lead with 5:16 remaining, helping the Bearcats hold off Northwest’s final charge.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.— Deon Davis was very surprised.
Davis, a starting SBU forward, looked up at the scoreboard in the final minutes of Southwest Baptist’s second round MIAA matchup against Northwest Missouri State and couldn’t believe the number of points next to teammate’s Jason Jamison’s name – 25.
“I was like, wow he is really playing well right now,” Davis said. “He was a huge plus for our team tonight.”
And on a night where SBU saw little production from four of its top scorers, it was Jemison who kept Northwest at bay and put the Bearcats into the championship with a 65-63 win.
Northwest effectively corralled SBU forward Jim Grabowski (0 points), Davis (5) and 7-foot-2 center Frans Steyn (7), but didn’t have an answer for Jemison, a player who looks very similar in size and stature to the Bulldogs’ Matt Brock.
Like Brock, Jemison lives from behind the three-point stripe, and tonight, he couldn’t miss. He finished with 27 points (no one on either side had more than 15) and sunk 7 of 15 three-pointers, including several that took the momentum from Northwest.
“Every shot he took uplifted us and built confidence,” Davis said.
Jemison, the third-leading scorer for the Bearcats entering the night, usually plays third fiddle to Pace and Steyn.
Jemison, though, has also been one to shoot a lot, but was not in the top 10 among the conference’s leaders in three-point shooting, hitting only 31.2 percent of his shots.
The first two times against Northwest, Jemison scored close to his season average of 11 points, but tonight, he couldn’t miss.
“When he shoots like this, it makes things tough for us,” Northwest head coach Steve Tappmeyer said. “It gives them three weapons and can really make things difficult.”
Jemison also made things hard for Northwest on the defensive end, containing guards Addae Houston and Xzavier Gaines.
“We first liked him because of his ability to shoot,” SBU head coach Jeff Guiot said. “He can shoot and likes to shoot. There was back to back games were he only took three shots and we almost rushed him to the hospital. He was trying to be the complete player. But his offense picks up when he plays well on defense.”
Jemison began heating up in the second half. SBU had only a one-point lead in the first half as Jamison sunk two of four treys.
But his defense picked up in the second half, helping his offense, keying the run that started the second half that gave SBU control the rest of the game.
“He doesn’t need much encouragement to keep shooting,” Guiot said. “We recognized that he had the hot hand and we kept feeding him the ball. That was something we did very well tonight.”
In a 51 second stretch, Jemison nailed two threes, extending the Bearcats lead from 27-26 to 33-28. His second three started a 13-6 run that provided SBU with plenty of cushion.
“We try to focus on eliminating runs,” Tappmeyer said. “And we couldn’t do that in the second half. They had some runs in the second half and then when they got up by 16 or 18 points.”
Jemison hit three more threes in a seven-minute stretch in the second half, further extending SBU’s advantage.
His final three provided SBU with a 58-42 lead with 5:16 remaining, helping the Bearcats hold off Northwest’s final charge.
posted by Anonymous at Wednesday, March 08, 2006
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