Sports

Plenty at stake

• Once a hoops star at Monroe High, former Tornadoes product Demetric Bennett will try to add to his already stellar season at South Alabama by leading the Jaguars to their biggest win all year against conference rival Western Kentucky tonight — a victory that would clinch the Sun Belt Conference title.

Scott Chancey

FAIRHOPE, Ala.  — Demetric Bennett was on the South Alabama team bus Wednesday, traveling some eight hours to Western Kentucky for tonight’s key Sun Belt Conference matchup.

And you didn’t have to ask him twice about what’s at stake.

“The regular-season conference championship will be determined,” said an excited Bennett, a former star at Monroe before signing with Southern Methodist and eventually transferring to South Alabama. “We’re playing for first place.”

And most importantly, playing for the conference driver’s seat heading into the Tournament.

A South Alabama win tonight would put the Jaguars in position for at least a co-championship and top seed in the tournament near the end of the regular season. The Hilltoppers are 21-5 overall and 13-1, while the Jaguars — led by Bennett’s 20.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game average — are right there with Western Kentucky at 21-5 and 13-2.

A win tonight would not only give the Jaguars the tie-breaker, but begin to cap what’s been a stellar season for the Jags.

“It’s been good,” Bennett said. “We’re trying to make it back to the NCAA tournament.”

Bennett and his teammates won the regular season and tournament crowns in 2006 and reached the NCAA

tourney, only to fall in the first round, 76-50, against eventual national champion Florida. A basket by Bennett pulled South Alabama within one at 9-18 late in the first half of that game, but the Gators went on a 10-0 run after that and never looked back.

Although South Alabama won the regular-season title again in 2007, the Jaguars fell short in the tournament and had to settle for the NIT, where they lost, 79-73, in the opening round against Syracuse.

South Alabama has only won one NCAA Tournament game, and that was in 1989 at Atlanta’s Omni (where Philips Arena now is located) when the Jaguars defeated Alabama, 86-84, in the first round.

While South Alabama is trying to return to the NCAA tourney, even ESPN recently recognized Bennett’s 3-point shooting. In a column by renowned writer Pat Forde, he paid homage to the fact Bennett has made 76-of-184 from beyond the arc and had 15 20-plus point games (he has even scored more than 20 in six of the past seven contests). Bennett had his best game this season during a 71-67 win against Mississippi State in which he dropped in 39 points.

Bennett says he has not only become a high-octane scorer, he’ still always focusing on improving some aspect of his game.

“I’m just gaining experience,” Bennett said. “All the time you work on the things you’ve been doing, working on the things you’re doing good and getting better at them. Then, you’re working on the things you have not been doing good at and trying to get better at those.”

South Alabama coach Ronnie Arrow, who also coached the Jaguars from 1987-94 and coached them to their lone NCAA tourney win, sees more to Bennett than just a high-caliber scorer.

“He’s a very good player who brings different dimensions to the team,” said Arrow, who came back to take over after John Pelphrey left to take over the top coaching job at Arkansas. “I think when people come to see him play, the word is he’s just a tremendous shooter. He’s very consistent on shooting the ball. We need him, though, to get him as hungry on rebounding and the other things to showcase his true talent.”

However, the bad news for the Jaguars is this: Although South Alabama could move closer to winning at least a share of yet another regular-season title and clinch the top seed for the conference tourney today, the Jags will probably have to win that, too, to make it to the exclusive NCAA bracket.

“To be considered as an at-large bid is always good. But we need to win the Sun Belt tournament championship (to ensure we have a shot),” Bennett said.

The Sun Belt Conference has not been granted an at-large bid since 1994.

South Alabama, however, will host the championship game (the first round is played on campus sites), and hopes it assures itself a spot in the Big Dance by winning the title game March 11.

And Arrow believes much of that fortune will depend on Bennett.

“He’s a guy we go to when we need to get points, and he’s a guy we want to be a leader for us, to get us where we want to be,” Arrow said, “And that is the NCAA tournament.”

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