The UNA Lions men’s basketball team defeated Delta State 73-54 Feb. 9 in Flowers Hall.

The game was nothing special in the first half as UNA held a small 26-22 lead heading into the second half.

“I though Delta State did a great job in the first half,” said Bobby Champagne, head coach. “I thought, conversely, they were really good at their offense and giving our defense trouble. It didn’t seem like a very intense game in the first half, but it was very physical.”

The mood of the game and the arena completely changed with 13:11 left in the second half. DeAndre Hershey made a rebound off a missed Delta State shot. Hershey then passed the ball to Marquel Darrington, who dribbled the ball down the sideline. Darrington lobbed a whiffed alley-oop that banked in for a three pointer. The UNA bench and fans erupted with shock and awe as the referees discussed what had just happened.

“It was about time Marquel hit a three,” Champagne said. “It did give us a little bit of a cushion.”

The three-pointer put the Lions up 41-30.

With 11:53 left in the game, Hershey went up for a shot. Delta State player Jack Madgen appeared to accidently undercut Hershey on the shot attempt. Hersey awkwardly landed on top of Madgen and Hershey began to roll around on the floor in pain.

“His back has been hurting him all year,” Champagne said.

Hershey was unable to take the free throws. Then controversy ensued.

The NCAA rule for selecting a free-throw shooter to replace an injured player states: “The coach from the opposing team shall select, without undue delay, one of the four players remaining on the court to attempt the free throw(s). Once selected by the coach, the shooter may not be changed.”

The Delta State coaches insisted that UNA player Kenyan Jackson, who shoots 53 percent from the free throw stripe, was on the court when the injury occurred. The referees, with no substantial evidence to prove otherwise, agreed with the Delta State coach and sent Jackson to the line.

“Their coach can pick any of the four players who are on the court to shoot the free throw, and KJ wasn’t on the floor,” Champagne said.

The official box score would later show that Nathan Spehr subbed in for Jackson with 13:47 left in the game. The four players on the court at the time of the injury were Wes Long (80 percent), Tyler Pritchard (76 percent), Spehr (92 percent), and Rashaun Claiborne (78 percent).

“They wanted KJ to shoot because, statistically, he is not a good free throw shooter and — the senior leader he is — he stepped up and knocked both of them down,” Champagne said.

He said that the fact that Jackson was not in the game and he still made the free throws made him feel good.

“It made me feel better that they manipulated the rule and he was able to knock down both of them,” Champagne said. “He was not in the game; he was on the bench.”

The free throws fired up the crowd and the Lions as they cruised to the victory down the stretch. The Lions were up 71-54 with less than 10 seconds left in the game when the Delta State coach called a timeout.

Champagne was not pleased about the timeout as he grabbed his clipboard off of the scores table and drew up a play.

“I had two freshmen and a sophomore in the game, and we ran an inbound play we had been working on in practice,” Champagne said.

Nathan Spehr took the ball from the referee on the baseline out-of-bounds. He was on the side of the backboard closest to the score table. Jere Vucica cut to the basket and caught a lob from Spehr. As Vucica dunked the ball over an unwilling Delta State player, every person not wearing green and black in Flowers jumped out of their seats and erupted in a loud cheer.

After Delta State dribbled out the rest of the clock, the Statesmen walked off the floor without shaking the Lions’ hands.

The Lions will have a week off until they play Union Feb. 16.

“We got us a big win at home and now we are going to go on the road against Union with a couple of extra days to prepare,” Champagne said.