BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Mississippi Valley State punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament in dramatic fashion.
Senior Carl Lucas drained two free throws with 0.4 seconds left to give the Delta Devils a thrilling 59-58 victory here Saturday night in the finals of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament at the State Fair Arena.
“I was very confident Carl Lucas would be clutch in that pressure situation,” MVSU head coach James Green said. “We won the league last year and then lost to Jackson State in the (tournament) championship game, so this is a big, big win. It’s huge for our program and our fans and alumni.”
“I knew we deserved to win this, and I knew I had to make those free throws,” said Lucas, the tournament Most Valuable Player. “But it did feel like about three hours during the timeout before I went back out there to go to the line.”
Valley guard Chris Watson hit a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left to tie the game at 56-all, but then point guard Dwayne Harmason, who thought his team was still down, committed a reach in foul about 25 feet from the basket. Givens knocked down two foul shots to hand the No. 4-seeded Tigers a 58-56 advantage.
“It was a mistake in the heat of the moment,” Green said of Harmason’s foul. “Dwayne is the headiest guy on our team when it comes to basketball. I was going to hurt tremendously for him if we didn’t win the game.”
With 15.9 seconds left, Valley’s Stanford Speech went to the line for a 1-and-1 opportunity. He hit the first attempt but missed the second that would’ve pulled the second-seeded Delta Devils even with JSU. But Speech wound up with the ball in his hands after Watson came up with the offensive rebound.
Speech drove to the basket, drawing in several JSU defenders, and dished the ball off just in time to Lucas who was driving down the baseline. JSU center Jeremy Caldwell was whistled for fouling Lucas on his way in for a layup.
“That one offensive rebound was the difference in the game. You talk about not letting that happen during the timeout and you work on it a lot in practice, but we didn’t make the play,” JSU coach Trevester Anderson said. “If we get that rebound, we could’ve sealed the game.”
When the shot came off the rim, Watson said he was thinking of one thing only: “Get the ball no matter what it takes.”
“I knew I could out-jump whoever was in front of me,” he added. “I went up strong with two hands. I knew we had to have the ball back.”
Green credited Speech for the key assist.
“Speech really did a great job of giving up the ball at the right time. What a great play. We expect those things from him,” the third-year MVSU coach said.
From there, Lucas did the rest.
Anderson didn’t like the foul call, but he refused to be a sore loser.
“It was a questionable call … (Valley) deserves to win because they made some clutch plays down the stretch,” he said. “Give Valley credit. They’re a good team and a well-coached team.”
With the dramatic win comes the SWAC’s automatic berth into this week’s 65-team field of the NCAA Tournament. Valley (17-15), making its first trip to the Big Dance since 1996 and its fourth overall, will learn its NCAA fate at 5 p.m. when players and coaches will gather in the Devils Den to watch the NCAA Selection Show, which will be aired on CBS.
“What a great way to close out my career at Valley, playing in the NCAA Tournament,” said Lucas, a Hollandale Simmons High School product. “I will never forget this the rest of my life. I have a great story to tell my kids one day.”
Watson finished with a team-high 10 points, and Michael Clark of Tchula was next with nine points.
Valley led by as many nine in the second half, following a Larry Cox layup with 10 minutes to play. The Tigers, however, went on an 11-1 run to take its first lead of the second half, 54-53, with 1:25 to play on a 3-pointer from Darrion Griffin, who finished with a game-high 24 points.
JSU(16-20) pushed its lead to 56-53 on a pair of free throws from Givens before Watson drained his 3-pointer to set off a wild finish.
The first half was a tight one most of the way, as one might expect from two rivals battling to keep their seasons alive. The game was tied four times and the lead changed hands 10 times before the Delta Devils were able to distance themselves some in the final three minutes.
Speech hit a basket with 2:56 left before the break to spark a 7-1 run to close out the first half to give Valley a 34-26 at the intermission.
Valley shot 48 percent from the field, including 4-of-9 from 3-point range, to build an eight-point halftime advantage.
JSU led five different times but only once each time.
n Semifinals:The Delta Devils defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 70-59 here Friday to earn a spot in the title game.
Carl Lucas led Valley with 20 points, and Chris Watson added 17.
Valley led by as many 13 midway through the first half. UAPB cut its deficit to seven with 21/2 minutes before the half.
The Delta Devils, however, closed the first half with an 8-2 run, including back-to-back 3-pointers in the final 40 seconds by Speech and Watson, to make it a 13-point game at the break.
The Golden Lions pulled within nine, 47-38, on a basket by J.Z. George product George Davis in the second half, but MVSU used a 12-3 run to race out to an 18-point advantage. Watson sparked the run with seven of the 12 points.
Like it did in its first-round win over Grambling, Valley had a big game at the foul line, hitting 24-of-31 from the charity stripe. MVSU went to the line 41 times against GSU, scoring 28 points.
