GAME NOTES
CLEVELAND, Miss -- With just five games remaining on the regular season, the Delta State University men's basketball team is set to make a final push to get into the Gulf South Conference tournament. The Statesmen will have three of their last five games at the friendly confines of Walter-Sillers Coliseum. DSU is coming off of two losses on the road last weekend to CBU and Union. The Green and White lost the two games by a combined 17 points. The Statesmen are set to take on West Florida and Valdosta State this week. Tipoff against UWF is set for 7:30 PM.on Thursday night. Tipoff against VSU on Saturday is at 4 PM. Philip Tang will have the call on the Statesmen Sports Network (WMJW 107.5 FM) and worldwide at GoStatesmen.com.
INSIDE THE UWF SERIES: Thursday's matchup is the 26th meeting all time between the Statesmen and Argos. The Statesmen lead the all time series 15-10. The last time these two teams met was on January 9 in Pensacola, Fla. Argos won 68-67 as Tarik McKelphin hit a free throw after time expired to win the ball game for UWF. There were nine ties and seven lead changes in the game. UWF led by 13 points with 4 minutes to go. DSU cut the lead down and tied the ball game with 20 seconds to go. McKelphin was fouled as time expired and won the game. Austin Laatsch had a game high 22 points in the loss. UWF is led by Jon Brown scoring 18.6 of their 64.7 points per game. The Argos only give up 65.7 points per game as well.
INSIDE THE VSU SERIES: Saturday's matchup is the 50th meeting all-time between the Statesmen and the Blazers with VSU having a narrow 25-24 lead in the series. Back on January 11 in Valdosta, the Blazers outscored DSU 48-36 in the first half and 55-44 in the second half for the 103-80 win. DSU was led by Keyshaun Street in the loss as he had 19 points. Airen Brooks added 14 points and 11 rebounds.The Blazers are still the highest scoring team in the GSC at 90.7 points per game. They are led by Clay Guillozet who has 15.8 ppg, Darrell Jones at 15.4 ppg, and Bryce Smith who is scoring 15.2 ppg.
STREET LEADING STATESMEN OFFENSE: Delta State enters Thursday's game with the Argos averaging 70.6 points per game thanks to the play of junior shooting guard Keyshaun Street Street leads the team in scoring at 14.9 points per game. Street led the Statesmen with 20 points at Union last Saturday. He has scored in double figures the last seven games and has scored more than 20 points seven times so far.
MR. DOUBLE-DOUBLE: Junior forward Airen Brooks continues to pace DSU, averaging 14.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. The Phenix City, Ala., native and former Shelton State CC star is 10th in the Gulf South Conference in rebounding and 1st while ranking 11th in field goal percentage (46.7). In 12 starts, Brooks has recorded 12 double-doubles while narrowly missing out on three more.
CARTWRIGHT CLIMBING: Freshman center Maalik Cartwright has continued to improve each and every game. He is now averaging 9.3 ppg while pulling down 6.1 rebounds per game as well. He was named GSC freshman of the week for the week of February 4th. This past week he recorded two double-doubles against CBU and UU. He had 20 points and 11 rebounds against CBU and then 18 points and 13 rebounds vs UU.
FLOOR GENERAL: Graduate-transfer Anderson McCoy has helped maintain the poise of the Statesmen on offense. He is averaging 11.6 ppg while also giving out 42 assists per game as well. In 21 games played he has 43 turnovers while averaging 38 minutes a game.
