Red Wolves Earn Thrilling Victory over South Alabama

Three Arkansas State players scored in double figures, including guards Marquis Eaton with a team-high 19 points and Christian Willis with a career-best 17, to lead the Red Wolves to a 75-71 victory over South Alabama Thursday night at First National Bank Arena in a Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball game.

Eaton and Willis were joined in double figures by fellow guard Jerry Johnson, who finished with 10 points to help lead A-State (14-7, 6-4) to its second straight win. The Red Wolves now stand 6-4 or better after 10 games in the Sun Belt for the 12th time in 29 seasons as a member of the league.

While Arkansas State dropped a 16-point decision just two weeks ago at South Alabama (12-9, 5-5), it capitalized on a strong shooting performance to even the regular-season series. A-State connected on 50 percent of its field goal attempts (22-44), shot 40 percent from beyond the arc (10-25) and made 21-of-26 free throws for an .808 mark. Willis tied his career high for three pointers made with three, while Eaton was 4-of-6 behind the three-point line.

Although the Jaguars matched the Red Wolves overall shooting percentage, they made just three shots from beyond the arc and posted a 63.2 free throw percentage. Led by a game-high nine rebounds from Melo Eggleston,

A-State also held a slight 29-28 advantage on the boards and dished out 21 assists to USA’s five.

“What a great conference win,” said A-State head coach Mike Balado. “I want to commend South Alabama for playing the way they did – they are an excellent basketball team and coached extremely well, but I was so proud of my guys with the way they fought the whole game. I think this is the first time that we’ve taken the lead and not given it up the entire game. They made big plays when they needed to and shared the ball extremely well.

“We had guys step up – (Christian Willis) was unbelievable, obviously Marquis was excellent and Jerry came in and made some shots, but everyone contributed. So, this was a great team win against a very good basketball team that helps us in the standings, and we needed to get that one at home to protect home court.”

While the game featured a pair of ties, both in the final three minutes, the Red Wolves never trailed and held the lead for close to 38 minutes.

A-State took a 31-27 lead into the break and extended its advantage to as much as 12 points, 60-48, with eight minutes remaining following a pair of Johnson free throws. However, South Alabama put together a 10-2 run over the next three minutes to pull back within 62-58 before eventually tying the contest at 65-65.

With the score still tied at 67-67 and 2:12 remaining, Willis hit a big three at the 1:46 mark that gave A-State the lead for good. The Jaguars were able to trim the margin back to one point a couple of times down the stretch, but A-State made 3-of-4 free throws over the final 14 seconds to seal the victory.

Four A-State players finished the night with at least four assists, including Willis with a game and career-high six. South Alabama was led by four players reaching double digits in the scoring column. Josh Ajayi finished the outing with a game-high 23 points.

Arkansas State returns to action Saturday, Jan. 25 with a 4:15 p.m. road game at Troy.