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Final Score: Utah 57, Stephen F. Austin 50
2nd (0:07): The first shot is good. The second shot is good. 57-50 Utah
2nd (0:07): Parker's three point attempt is blocked and that will just about do it. Wright will go to the line as Walkup has just fouled out.
2nd (0:15): The first shot is missed. The second shot is good. 55-50 Utah
2nd (0:15): Dallas Cameron sees his three-point attempt go in and out. Isaiah Wright with the big rebound where he is fouled.
2nd (0:31): Wright barely gets over the timeline. He is fouled and will go to the line. The first shot is good. The second shot is good. 54-50 Utah
2nd (0:41): Pinkney's first shot is no good. The second shot is good. 52-50 Utah
2nd (0:41): Pinkney with the drive to the bucket, he is fouled by Loveridge who fouls out.
2nd (1:27): Charles with the three-pointer off the window! 52-49 Utah.
2nd (1:39): The first free throw is good. The second free throw is good. 52-46 Utah
2nd (1:39): Poeltl grabs an offensive rebound and is fouled right away. He is a sub-50% free throw shooter, this could be a good strategy for the Lumberjacks.
2nd (2:02): Timeout Utah
2nd (2:11): Walkup drives to the bucket and is fouled. His first shot is good. The second shot is good. 50-46 Utah
2nd (2:24): Jakob Poeltl with a huge offensive rebound, the putback and the foul. His free throw is no good. 50-44 Utah
2nd (2:57): A tie-up underneath and the arrow belongs to Stephen F. Austin
2nd (3:35): Walkup with the steal! He finishes the layup but misses the free throw. The ball is out of bounds off of Utah! 48-44 Utah
2nd (3:44): Walkup with the drive to the bucket. 48-42 Utah
Media Timeout: Utah 48, Stephen F. Austin 40
2nd (4:15): Parker looks for a long-distance shot that doesn't even come close. A shot clock violation.
2nd (4:18): A mad scramble in the corner, Stephen F. Austin will get the ball with two seconds on the shot clock.
2nd (4:51): Loveridge to the line for two. He makes both shots. 48-40 Utah
2nd (5:08): Dakari Tucker with a big block on the fast break to keep the lead at 6.
2nd (6:06): Delon Wright goes to the line where he makes the first. His second is good. 46-40 Utah
2nd (6:20): Dallas Cameron to the line where he makes both. 44-40 Utah
2nd (6:23): BLOCK! Thomas Walkup with a huge block on Delon Wright.
2nd (6:42): Charles drives to the bucket and earns the foul on Poeltl. His first shot is good. The second shot is good. 44-38 Utah
Media Timeout: Utah 44, Stephen F. Austin 36
2nd (7:07): Offensive foul on Utah. It will be Lumberjack basketball after the break.
2nd (7:46): Ty Charles for three! 44-36 Utah
2nd (8:03): Wright is fouled on the drive to the bucket. His first free throw is no good. The second free throw is good. 44-33 Utah
2nd (8:19): Cameron with the layup on the backdoor cut. 43-33 Utah
2nd (9:00): Utah is just imposing their will. Taylor with the up and under. 43-31 Utah
2nd (9:22): Jared Johnson called for the foul. Utah ball.
2nd (9:59): Poeltl drives to the bucket and is fouled. His first free throw is good. The second is no good. 41-31 Utah
2nd (10:22): Poeltl with another bucket down in the post. He is really using his size to his advantage here. 40-31 Utah. Timeout Stephen F. Austin
2nd (10:37): Walkup to the line, his first is good. The second is good. 38-31 Utah
2nd (10:55): Poeltl takes the entry pass and finishes on the right side. 38-29 Utah
2nd (11:37): Poeltl rattles the first shot in. The second shot is no good. 36-29 Utah
Media Timeout: Utah 35, Stephen F. Austin 29
2nd (11:44): Loveridge misses a dunk, Poeltl is fouled on the put back. He will shoot free throws when we come back.
2nd (12:13): Wright looks to go up and under but he is fouled. Wright's first shot is good. His second shot is good. 35-29 Utah
2nd (13:36): Timeout Utah
2nd (14:02): Floyd with the two pointer from the elbow. 33-29 Utah
2nd (14:47): Walkup with the bucket, his second of the game. 33-27 Utah
2nd (15:15): Poeltl with a big jam coming out of the timeout. 33-25 Utah
Media Timeout: Utah 31, Stephen F. Austin 25
2nd (15:54): Dallas Cameron is called for the blocking foul.
2nd (16:30): Poeltl with a layup on the fast break. 31-25 Utah
2nd (17:15): Loveridge with the triple from straight away. 29-25 Utah
2nd (17:38): Parker with the jam on the backdoor cut. 26-25 Utah
2nd (18:27): Pinkney with the slash to the bucket. A turnover by Utah, Poeltl picks up the foul, his third.
2nd (19:23): Dallas Cameron will go to the line after being fouled on the shot. His first is good. The second is good. 26-21 Utah
2nd (20:00): Utah brings the ball and we are underway in the second half. An early turnover from Utah.
Stephen F. Austin needs to figure out how to attack the big men down low for Utah.
Halftime: Utah 26, Stephen F. Austin 19
1st (0:06): Parker with the dunk after a weave pulled all Utah defenders to the top of the key. 26-19 Utah
1st (0:55): Tanner Clayton gets open inside and slams home an entry pass. 26-17 Utah
1st (1:13): Utah looks for a lob to Reyes that goes out of bounds.
1st (1:14): Timeout Utah
1st (1:38): Floyd attempts a long distance shot that is off the rim and out.
1st (2:25): Delon Wright with the bucket off every inch of the rim. 26-15 Utah
1st (2:45): Walkup is called for the charge as he drives to the basket. That is his second foul.
Media Timeout: Utah 24, Stephen F. Austin 15
1st (3:53): Stephen F. Austin will get the ball when we come back.
1st (4:37): Loveridge with the three pointer from the elbow. 24-15 Utah
1st (5:04): Walkup misses the floater. He is struggling from the floor shooting just 1-of-5
1st (5:54): Dakari Tucker with another three from the corner. 21-15 Utah. Timeout on the floor.
1st (7:14): Poeltl with a huge block that leads to a shot clock violation
1st (7:51): The free throw from Loveridge is good but a lane violation on Utah is called. No basket
Media Timeout: Utah 18, Stephen F. Austin 15
1st (8:05): Thomas Walkup makes his first basket of the nice. Loveridge makes a cut to the basket and draws a foul. He will shoot a free throw after the media timeout.
1st (8:48): Ty Charles sinks another three with a hand in his face. 16-13 Utah
1st (9:53): Delon Wright with the throwdown on the drive. That was beautiful. 16-10 Utah
Media Timeout: Utah 14, Stephen F. Austin 10
1st (10:23): Dakarai Tucker loses the ball out of bounds on the backdoor cut as we go to the media timeout.
1st (11:07): Jordan Loveridge with the drive and the reverse off the glass. 14-10 Utah
1st (11:40): BANK! Demetrious Floyd with the bank shot on the three pointer. 12-10 Utah
1st (12:15): Dakari Tucker sinks a three from the corner as the shot clock expired. Utah 12-7
1st (12:51): A foul called on Stephen F. Austin on the offensive end.
1st (14:10): Clide Geffrard with the shot from the free throw line. Dakari Tucker answers with a three. 9-7 Utah
1st (14:41): DUNK! Jakob Poeltl finishes on the pick and roll. 6-5 Utah
1st (15:08): Jacob Parker with the shot from the top of the key. 5-4 Stephen F Austin
1st (15:25): Each team with a turnover coming out of the media timeout.
Media Timeout: Utah 4, Stephen F. Austin 3
1st (15:47): Parker gets the ball tipped out of bounds. It will be Lumberjacks ball when we come back.
1st (16:31): An early foul called on Thomas Walkup. The Southland Player of the Year cannot afford to be on the bench
1st (16:39): Ty Charles with the three from the corner. 4-3 Utah
1st (17:36): Pinkney gets his shot blocked by Poeltl. Nothing going early for Stephen F. Austin.
1st (18:25): Chris Reyes finishes in the post. 4-0 Utah
1st (19:35): Jakob Poeltl with the easy bucket down low. 2-0 Utah
1st (20:00): Utah wins the tip and we are underway
Here we go. Utah will be in all white. Stephen F. Austin will be in all black.
Our game is starting a little late because of the overtime game bewteen Ohio State and Virginia Commonwealth that just finished about 25 minutes ago.
A very juicy 12/5 matchup is on how hands as we start the evening session in Portland, Oregon with the game between the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks and the Utah Utes.
And welcome in to VAVEL USA's live coverage of the 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. My name is Matthew Evans.
Utah has a sheer size advantage over Stephen F. Austin. One thing that we could see tonight are times when Jakob Poeltl and Dallin Backynski are both on the floor in order to give the Utes the rebounding advantage down low. Eliminating second-chance possessions will be huge for Utah. The chances may not occur very often especially considering that Stephen F. Austin is a very good shooting team.
G – Brandon Taylor (5’10, Fr, 9.7 PPG, 2.4 RPG)
G – Delon Wright (6’5, Sr, 16.4 PPG, 5.6 RPG)
F – Brekkot Chapman (6’8, Fr, 5.1 PPG, 2.3 RPG)
F – Jordan Loveridge (6’6, Jr, 9.5 PPG, 4.0 RPG)
C – Jakob Poeltl (7’0, Fr, 8.1 PPG, 5.1 RPG)
Here is a look at the projected starting lineup for the Utah Utes. The stats included are from the school’s last ten game.
That Oregon team would be the one to end Utah’s regular season with a 67-64 win in the Pac-12 Semifinals. Utah slipped to a #5 seed but still got a pretty good location draw only having to travel to Portland, Oregon.
Utah had a pretty good start to the season in their non-conference with wins over Wichita State and BYU, their only losses came to Kansas and San Diego State both away from Salt Lake City. They looked to be in a good position to secure the Pac-12 Regular Season title before letting their home game with Arizona slip away at the end. A late-season loss at Washington relegated them to a second-place tie with the Oregon Ducks.
That will make this game against the high scoring Lumberjacks even more interesting.
Utah has nine games in which they have held their opponents to less than 50 points. They also have 18 games in which they have allowed less than 60 points in a game.
The biggest change has been the commitment to defense in Salt Lake City. The points allowed per game number has taken a huge jump from Krystkowiak’s first year to now. In that 2011-12 season, the Utes were allowing 69.7 points per game. This season, they are allowing 56.9 points per game.
Utah has been in a transition since that last NCAA berth having switched conferences as well as switching coaches. Gone is Jim Boylen who guided the team to a 27-35 record in his final two seasons, in is former Montana head coach Larry Krystkowiak who has taken the team from a 6-25 record in 2011-12 to a 24-8 record in 2014-15.
The Utah Utes are making their 28th NCAA Tournament appearance dating back to 1944. It will be their first appearance since 2009 when they lost in the first round to the Arizona Wildcats.
Stephen F. Austin will use nine or ten players in their rotation tonight. You may think that they look undersized in their starting line and they are. They do have some bigger options off the bench in 6-foot-9 senior Tanner Clayton and 6-foot-7 senior Bobby King. The other names to keep in mind are Clide Geffrard, Demetrious Floyd, and Jared Johnson. Those three players are averaging around 27 points per game combined over the last ten games.
G – Ty Charles (6’5, Fr, 9.7 PPG, 5.6 RPG)
G – Dallas Cameron (6’3, Soph, 5.4 PPG, 1.4 RPG)
G – Trey Pinkney (5’9, Jr, 3.4 PPG, 2.0 RPG)
G – Thomas Walkup (6’4, Jr, 19.0 PPG, 7.3 RPG)
F – Jacob Parker (6’6, Sr, 14.0 PPG, 5.5 RPG)
Here is a look at the projected starting lineup for the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. The stats included are from the school’s last ten game.
That right there is the reason why Stephen F. Austin should be considered a very dangerous team that is capable of this upset over Utah.
As impressive as those stats are, take a look at the team’s shooting stats from the last ten games heading into the NCAA Tournament. In the last ten games, Stephen F. Austin is shooting 52.4% from the floor, 43.8% from the three-point line, 77.7% from the free-throw line, and averaging 85.7 points per game.
The shooting stats as a team for the season are very impressive as well as they are shooting 49.1% from the floor, 38.5% from behind the arc, 73.4% from the free-throw line, and averaging 79.5 points per game.
In 2014-15, the top end scoring stats may not be there with only Thomas Walkup and Jacob Parker scoring over 10 points per game but the scoring output from the bench players is up as well. Stephen F. Austin has nine players that contribute at least 3.5 points per game. All nine of those players play significant minutes and any one of them is capable of having a big game.
Those Lumberjacks shot 46.2% from the floor, made 34.5% of their three pointers, 71.1% of their free throws and averaged 76.0 points per game.
The 2013-14 Lumberjacks finished the season with four players averaging more than 11.7 points per game. Nikola Gajic finished just below the ten point per game marker with 9.6. After that though, the production dropped off completely with nobody else averaging more than 3.0 points per game.
Though that Stephen F. Austin team came into the tournament with 31 wins, this Stephen F. Austin team may be better all around.
The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks are making their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and third overall. They have a combined record of 1-2. That win was a shocking upset over Virginia Commonwealth also in a 5/12 matchup down in San Diego. SFA would go on to lose in the Round of 32 to the 4th seeded UCLA Bruins.
The winner of our game tonight will face off with the winner of the other game during the evening session in Portland between the Eastern Washington Eagles and Georgetown Hoyas. I’ll have live coverage of that game starting as soon as our game is finished.
Good evening and welcome to VAVEL USA’s live coverage of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Our game tonight is part of the South Region as the Southland Champion Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks (29-4) take on the Utah Utes (24-8) of the Pac-12 Conference. My name is Matthew Evans and I will be your host for both games during the evening session here at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.