Southern Jaguars: 2015-16 SWAC Men's Basketball Champions

HOUSTON -- Southern University coach Roman Banks didn't want to say that his team wasn't motivated in the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game last season when the Jaguars were ineligible to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

He did acknowledge, however, that his team had a little something extra in this year's game knowing what the prize for winning would be.

Adrian Rodgers made a jump shot with 17 seconds left to lift Southern to a 54-53 victory over Jackson State on Saturday night, clinching the Jaguars' first NCAA appearance since 2013.

Southern reached the title game by knocking off top-seeded Texas Southern in the semifinal game Friday night. The Jaguars lost to Texas Southern in the title game last season in a year in which they were ineligible for the NCAA Tournament because of Academic Progress Rates restrictions.

"I could see the difference in our practice and our mindset," Banks said. "They were a little bit more focused. You could see the extra energy and the extra push through."

Trelun Banks, who was named tournament MVP, scored 19 points for Southern (22-12), which is making its ninth trip to the NCAA tourney. He was asked what it means to get to play in the tournament with his father coaching him.

"I didn't want to do it for me," he said. "I really wanted to get it done for my dad. For the hard work and things he's been through."

It was a wild back-and-forth game that featured several lead changes in the final minutes. Raeford Worsham put Jackson State (19-15) on top with a layup with 33 seconds left before the shot by Rodgers put Southern ahead -- to stay.

The Tigers had a chance to win it, but missed two shots in the final seconds.

They were very emotional after the game, with coach Wayne Brent unable to finish his opening statement because he was fighting back tears and Paris Collins resting his head on the table and sobbing for long stretches during postgame interviews.

Collins said he was responsible for Rodgers when he made the winning shot.

"It just hurts when you play that hard on somebody and one slip-up just takes the dream away," he said.

Worsham led Jackson State with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Rodgers finished with seven points and 11 rebounds, and Shawn Prudhomme added 10 points.

The game was tied when Collins made a 3-pointer with less than two minutes left to make it 51-48.

Banks made a pair of free throws after that to cut the lead to 1 and Christopher Hyder added two more free throws to put Southern up by 1 before the layup by Worsham.

Hyder stole the ball on the ensuing possession and was fouled. He made both free throws with 43 seconds left to give Southern a 52-51 lead.

Southern hadn't scored in more than four minutes when Javeres Brent made one of two free throws with 4 1/2 minutes left to cut the lead to 48-43. It was the first of six straight points for the Jaguars, capped by a 3-pointer by Banks, that tied it at 48 with 2:18 remaining.

Jackson State trailed by 3 after a pair of free throws by Rodgers with about 8 1/2 minutes remaining. The Tigers scored the next nine points, with the first four from Worsham to take a 48-42 lead with just under five minutes remaining.

The Jaguars missed six shots during that time to help Jackson State build the lead.

Southern led by as many as eight in the first half, but Jackson State had cut the lead to 24-22 by halftime.

TIP-INS

Jackson State: Collins finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. ... Specks had eight points. ... Chace Franklin scored nine points and had a block.

Southern: Scored 16 points off 12 turnovers by Jackson State. ... Southern's bench outscored Jackson State's 15-4. ... Made four of 14 3-pointers.

CELEBRITY GUEST

Jacoby Jones, who made the NFL Pro Bowl in 2012, attended many of the tournament's games this week and was in the front row for Saturday's contest. Jones is from New Orleans, but didn't go to Southern, instead attending tiny Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, before he was drafted by the Houston Texans in the third round of the 2007 draft.

UP NEXT

Jackson State: Expects an invitation to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

Southern: Prepares for the NCAA Tournament.

Pia Wurtzbach: Miss Universe 2015

The Miss Universe 2015 contest has ended in confusion and disarray after the host mistakenly named the wrong woman as the winner.
Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo from Colombia had already been crowned and was standing on stage to cheers from the Las Vegas audience when mortified host Steve Harvey returned to announce the error.
“OK, folks, um, I have to apologise,” he said, walking back on stage while Arevalo was proudly waving to fans, holding the winner’s bouquet and wearing the Miss Universe sash. “The first runner-up is Colombia,” he went on, “Miss Universe 2015 is Philippines.”
The camera panned straight to a stunned Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, who started slowly walking to the front of the stage. For a few awkward moments the two women stood side by side, in front of a TV audience of millions from around the world, before Harvey explained that he read the card naming the winner and runner-up in the wrong order.

“I will take responsibility for this, it was my mistake,” he told the crowd. “It’s on the card ... horrible mistake, but I can show it to you right here,” he said, holding up the card.

“It is my mistake, but it’s still a great night.”
“Please don’t hold it against the ladies, please don’t. I feel so badly but it’s still a great night.”
As he spoke, a former Miss Universe winner quickly removed the crown from Arevalo and placed it on Wurtzbach. The broadcast ended moments later.
The reaction on social media was swift, with viewers expressing dismay at the “fail of the decade”.

Later, Wurtzbach told reporters that she wished Arevalo well.
“I’m very sorry. I did not take the crown from her,” she said. “None of this was done on purpose. It was an honest mistake.”
Harvey’s mistake is not the first time the wrong woman has been named the winner of a high-profile beauty pageant. In 2010 during a live television broadcast, Australian host Sarah Murdoch read out the wrong name in the finale of Australia’s Next Top Model.
The competition started with women representing 80 countries between the ages of 19 and 27. For the first time, viewers at home weighed in, with their votes being tallied in addition to four in-person celebrity judges.
NBC Universal and Donald Trump co-owned the Miss Universe Organization until earlier this year. The real-estate developer offended Latin Americans in June when he made anti-immigrant remarks in announcing his Republican presidential run.
That led Spanish-language network Univision to pull out of the broadcast for what would have been the first of five years airing the pageants and NBC to cut business ties with Trump.
The former star of the Celebrity Apprentice reality show sued both companies, settling with NBC in September, which included buying the network’s stake in the pageants.
That same month, Trump sold the organisation that includes the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants to entertainment company WME-IMG.

Associated Press contributed to this report