Stephen F. Austin Basketball: How Lumberjacks stunned Duke in Cameron Indoor

Every player for SFA played a vital role

Every fan of NCAA basketball knows that if somebody is going to knock off the #1 team, especially a #1 ranked Duke team at Cameron Indoor, then that team cannot have just one guy do all of the work. Everyone had to step up for Stephen F. Austin, and they answered their call perfectly.

After the first half, it was clear that Kevon Harris was the greatest weapon for the Lumberjacks. He did have 20 points through the first 20 minutes of play. For this, I was a bit concerned that Duke shutting him down would exhaust Stephen F. Austin’s scoring ability.

In the second half, Duke’s defense applied much of their focus to defending Harris. This reduced his scoring, causing him to only record point points in the final 25 minutes, but SFA proved to have more scoring options.

Harris’s smarts, confidence, and experience still allowed him to be a threat, but more opportunities arose for the Stephen F. Austin forwards. Nathan Bain and Gavin Kensmil both scored in double digits, recording 11 and 15 points respectively.

Guard Cameron Johnson had himself quite a night as well. He scored 16 points off of the bench on 7/13 from the floor. Guard David Kachelries found himself open for easy layup opportunities and hit a game-changing 3-point shot when down two near the end of regulation.

https://twitter.com/KachelriesDavid/status/1199561197588230144

On defense, everyone did exactly what was needed. When they became outmanned, others came in to help out. There were times in which they looked to be beaten, but they recovered. Their effort caused them to pull Duke’s offense out of rhythm on numerous occasions.

Stephen F. Austin’s victory truly shows that it takes an entire team to pull off an upset of this magnitude.