Box Score | First Half Play-by-Play | Second Half Play-by-Play
JACKSON, Miss. – Delta State men's basketball wrapped up its Division I caravan with a finale against Jackson State on Saturday night. The Statesmen narrowly missed a victory, falling to the Tigers 58-53.
Jackson State opened the scoring and never lost the lead. However, Delta State made the contest interesting by staying close behind the entire night.
The Tigers started the game on a 15-6 run, but DSU slowly started chipping away at the lead when
Alister Chisholm knocked down a three from
Jake Maestranzi at the 10:06 mark.
Devin Schmidt put the Statesmen within two on a jumper that notched the score at 17-15 with 7:37 to go in the first half.
JSU gradually earned the advantage back to lead by as many as 12 in the half. DSU went into the locker room trailing 31-21.
After intermission, Delta State never trailed by more than 11 points. Buckets from
Jack Madgen,
Zelvin Smith Jr, and
Ethan Gillis put the Green-and-White back within three.
Over a period of ten minutes, Jackson State went on a 16-8 run to take another substantial lead, 51-40, with just over five minutes to play.
With the final seconds ticking off the clock, Madgen connected with Schmidt behind the arc to close the scoring margin to five, 56-51, with 20 seconds left.
Another Schmidt jumper put DSU within four, but the game ultimately came down to the charity stripe. Jackson State held on to win 58-53.
Sophomore guard Schmidt led the Statesmen with a double-double, 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Ethan Gillis, a native of Asheville, North Carolina, joined Schmidt in double figures with 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Delta State owned every offensive advantage, outshooting JSU 44.4 percent to 43.2 percent from the field and 61.3 percent to 52.6 percent from the free throw line. DSU outscored the Tigers 32-27 in second-half play, but the first half deficit was too much to overcome.
The Statesmen will get some much-needed rest before hitting the road again for Lakeland, Florida. DSU will take part in the second annual Sunshine State/Gulf South Conference Challenge as they take on Eckerd College on Saturday, Nov. 15 and preseason No. 6 Florida Southern the following day.
