By Rick Teverbaugh, Herald Bulletin Sports Editor
ANDERSON, Ind. — Anderson High School graduate DeJovaun Sawyer-Davis had some experience on a big stage and he thought Wednesday would be a good time to put it to use.
Sawyer-Davis, the leading player for the men’s basketball team at University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, scored 43 points against Black Hills State University to lift the Cougars into the Sweet 16 of the NAIA Division II Tournament.
The 32-team tournament is being contested in Point Lookout, Mo.
“I just knew that I had been out here before with Indiana Wesleyan (freshman year),” said Sawyer-Davis during a Thursday phone interview before practice. “I thought we might come out a little tentative and we did. I thought I might need to take a little more of a role.”
That he did. Sometimes an athlete will get caught up in the game and not realize he is putting up big scoring numbers. That wasn’t the case on Wednesday.
“They have one of those scoreboards that show your points and fouls,” he said. “I knew I had scored a lot in the first half, but I didn’t know how much I had scored in the second.”
He also knew that he had played a lot of minutes.
“The coach gave me a blow for a couple of minutes in the first half,” said Sawyer-Davis. “But I didn’t come out in the second half. I played 38 minutes. When I needed a blow in the second half he called a timeout. He’d check with me and I’d give him a thumbs-up that I was fine.”
He hit 14-of-21 from the field including 5-of-9 from 3-point range. He sank all 10 of his free throws to go with 11 rebounds, one assist, one steal and two blocked shots. That performance moved him up to No. 11 on the St. Francis career scoring list with one more year of eligibility left.
Sawyer-Davis was named to the Mid-Central Conference All-Conference Team for the second year in a row. He was the No. 2 scorer in the league, averaging 19.7 points. He was 10th in the NAIA in scoring.
“It was kind of a frustrating season at first,” he said. “We had so many young players. We were trying to get everyone to play as well as they could.”
Today (5 p.m. EST) the Cougars will face the No. 2 team in NAIA, Oregon Tech (30-4). If he scores 17 or more points in that game he will move up to No. 10 on the career scoring list. Taking on a team with that lofty ranking doesn’t bother Sawyer-Davis.
“We feel like we can beat anyone out here,” said Sawyer-Davis. “We already beat the No. 1 team (Walsh College, 86-75). We’ve beaten five of the top 12 teams.”
St. Francis is ranked No. 15 with a 24-9 record. Should the Cougars win tonight, they will play again Saturday at a time to be determined.
