BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Jared Sam grabbed 11 rebounds and scored 22 points, including a go-ahead free throw late, and third-seeded Southern rallied to beat Jackson State 69-63 in Tuesday night's Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal.
The Jaguars (15-17) will play in Friday's semifinal against No. 2 Alcorn State (17-13), which beat No. 7 Mississippi Valley State (7-25) 63-60 on Tuesday.
LaQuentin Collins hit a 3, Sam added a jumper, and Southern rallied from a 34-25 halftime deficit to a 42-41 lead with 13:02 to play. After two lead changes, Sam hit a go-ahead free throw and Southern led 62-58 on Chris Thomas' free throws with 1:31 to go. Sam hit five more from the line down the stretch to seal it.
Shawn Prudhomme scored 14 and Thomas 10 for Southern (14-18). Sam made 16 of Southern's 28 free throws.
Maurice Rivers scored 13 for sixth-seeded Jackson State (14-18), which finished shooting 32 percent from the floor.
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