Jalen Blackmon pours in 43 points to send Stetson basketball to first NCAA Tournament berth
DELAND — Stetson coach Donnie Jones walked into the media room after a lengthy absence on Sunday.
"I'm sorry," he said grinning before pausing to take a sip of water. "For some reason, everyone wants to talk to me."
And they'll be talking about him and this team in DeLand long after he and this group of players are gone.
ASUN Conference leading scorer Jalen Blackmon erupted for 43 points, 34 of which came in the second half, and the Hatters hit enough free throws down the stretch to preserve a 94-91 win over Austin Peay in the ASUN Championship game Sunday afternoon in the Edmunds Center.
With the win, Stetson earned its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in school history and will await its first-round matchup next Sunday in the NCAA Selection Show. As of Friday night, ESPN's Joe Lunardi projected the Hatters as a 16 seed in a play-in game against fellow-16 Norfolk State, with the winner taking on 1-seed Tennessee.
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Yet for Jones and company, all that could wait. In front of a raucous crowd of 2,328, the Hatters did the unthinkable. Not just make the NCAA Tournament, but a program that turned Division I in 1971-72 finally turned DeLand into a basketball town.
"It hit me before the game, we had people flying in from all over the place to have a chance to experience history today. You don’t get many of those moments," Jones said. "This is the first. These guys will go down in history here as the greatest team to ever play here. First to ever do it.
"It’s hard to go to the NCAA Tournament even when you have great, great teams and these kids did it. They stayed when it got hard. Others left. And that’s a credit to the kids that stayed here and believed in what we were doing."
Stetson trailed by as many as 10 in the first half and had a hard time all game dealing with Governors big man Sai Witt, who finished with 28 points and 10 rebounds. But Blackmon went on a tear in the second half that won't soon be forgotten and hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final 30 seconds to hold Austin Peay at bay.
Blackmon's final tallies, a pair of foul shots, came with 3.9 seconds remaining, and a desperation heave on the other end went begging, setting off a court-storming celebration among the Hatters and Stetson faithful.
Blackmon, who was just 2 for 12 from the floor with 12 points in the Hatters' semifinal win Thursday over Jacksonville, was quiet again Sunday throughout much of the first half. He had just 3 points on 1 for 3 shooting at the last media timeout with 3:33 to go until the break.
At that point, the Governors led 29-26 and that ballooned to 35-26. But Blackmon buried back-to-back 3s, and with two Stephan Swenson buckets mixed in, the Hatters cut the deficit to 39-36 at the break.
It was just a sign of things to come.
Blackmon credited senior point guard Stephan Swenson, who had his own signature moment on Thursday with a game-winning 3 inside the final five seconds, for helping him lock in over the final 20 minutes.
"Steph told me at halftime, 'This is your half,' Blackmon said. "He saved the season with what he did against Jacksonville. That was insane, how he carried us. I just did my part today. Getting going, making shots, and I also played with the ball a little bit today and made it easier on my teammates."
The Hatters opened the second half on a 7-2 spurt to grab a 43-41 lead. A few moments later, Austin Peay ripped off an 8-0 run and jumped back ahead by seven at 54-47 forcing a timeout from Jones.
Treyton Thompson got the Hatters rally started with a quick bucket.
And then Blackmon caught fire and the rest is history. On a day full of it.
He scored 16 straight Hatters points, 20 out of 23, and assisted on the only other score in that stretch, a 3-pointer for Alec Oglesby. In less than six minutes of game time (from 12:25 remaining in the game to 6:30), Blackmon more than doubled his point total and helped put the Hatters out front for good.
Stetson led by six with 2:54 to play after an Oglesby basket but just over a minute later, a 3-pointer from Dezi Jones tied things at 84. On the ensuing possession, Blackmon knifed to the rim, scored and was fouled. he sank the free throw to put the Hatters up by three again.
Witt answered with a two-handed slam on the other end, but while the Hatters missed 10 free throws in the game, they were 12 of their final 13 including Blackmon's daggers at the end. That included center Aubin Gateretse, a 62.4% free throw shooter coming in who went 11 for 15, including a crucial pair with 57.1 seconds remaining.
“That just tells you who they are,” Jones said. “You can practice free throws all day long in the gym with no one around, but when it’s the moment, and you just go to your habits and to be able to lock in mentally? Those guys are true champions.
"There’s a reason we’re champions today. It’s because we have real champions as people, number one, and number two as players.”
Gateretse and Swenson each had 13 points for Stetson with Oglesby adding 10. Jones (17), Demarcus Sharp (16), Isaac Haney (13) and Ja'Monta Black (11) each hit double figures for the Governors.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Stetson Hatters basketball: Jalen Blackmon leads Hatters to ASUN title
