Chapman

Taylor was named to Huntsville Times Honorable Mention Elite Basketball team in 2010. He was named finalist for the Wendy’s Heisman Award for Grissom High School this year. Taylor led his team scoring last season, averaging 14 points per game, shooting nearly 39% 3pt FG and 87% free throw percentage.

Campbell was named GSC Freshman of the Year in 2010. In addition, he earned second team All-Conference honors. 

Photo Courtesy of Arkansas Tech Sports Information

Russellville, Ark. - If the last second loss in the Gulf South Conference championship game was painful, Saturday will go down as undescribable heartbreak as the Chargers had their season come to an end with a 59-57 overtime loss to No. 11 Rollins College. With the loss, the 2009-10 campaign ended with an all-time UAH Division II record of 23-7.

The Chargers were led by freshman standouts Jaime Smith and Zane Campbell who tallied 16 and 13 points respectively. Smith was 6-for-14 from the field, including four 3-pointers. Campbell was 5-for-10 from the field and had half of the Chargers' freethrows at 3-for-4. He also had six rebounds.

Not to be overlooked, sophomore guard Josh Magette had a solid stat line, finishing with eight points, 10 assists, seven rebounds and six steals.

Ryna Ferranti led Rollins with 13 points. Nick Wolf added 12 points and 11 rebounds while Myk Brown contributed 10.

"It was a classic college basketball game between two great teams," said UAH coach Lennie Acuff. "I couldn't be more proud of these kids and the season they've had."

The game didn't start out a classic. In fact, it was all UAH all the time in the first ten minutes. The Chargers came out firing rolling out to a 17-point lead. When Magette buried a deep 3-pointer with 10:05 left, the Chargers had a seemingly commanding 25-8 lead. However, UAH went cold over the final 10 minutes, managing only two points, while Rollins closed out the half with an 18-2 run to close to within a point at 27-26.

The Tars quickly jumped ahead early in the second half with a 3-pointer by Julian Wilkison. From there it was a dogfight with the teams exchanging leads and the score being tied six times.

Rollins appeared to be pulling away after Ferranti dropped in a jumper with 3:12 left to give the Tars a 51-45 lead. Then, the Chargers turned the ball over on the next possession, giving Rollins a chance to virtually put the nail in the coffin.

However after a Rollins turnover, the Chargers cut the lead in half with a 3-pointer by Smith with 2:15 left. Then, another turnover put the ball back the Chargers' hands with less than two minutes left. Senior guard Derek Johnston was fouled and made a pair of freethrows to make it 51-50 with 1:44 left.

Thirty seconds later, Brown missed a jumper and Campbell grabbed the rebound. On the next UAH possession, Magette found Johnston alone in the corner and he knocked done the 3-pointer to give the Chargers a 53-51 lead with 39 seconds left.

After a timeout, Rollins tied the game on a layup by Ian Scott with 16 seconds left. The Chargers had a chance to win the game, but Campbell's jumper from the corner came up short, sending the game into overtime.

In the extra period, Rollins drew blood first on a jumper by Brown. Smith answered on the other end with a 3-pointer, giving UAH a 56-55 lead with 3:11 left. After a layup by Ferranti put Rollins back on top, Tyler Hanback split a pair of freethrows to tie the game at 57-all with 2:17 left.

Ferranti scored again with 2:05 left to put the Tars on top for good. The Chargers had several chances to reclaim the lead and possibly pull off the upset. Smith missed a jumper in traffic with 13 seconds left. Then after Matt Robertson missed the front end of a one-and-one for the Tars, Johnston had a great look from downtown, but was long with three seconds left.

UAH had one last gasp of hope when Wolf came up short on another one-and-one first shot with less than a second left. The Chargers had one more chance with .2 left for a tip at the basket. Magette lobbed a pass nearly the length of the court towards the UAH goal. Hanback elevated, caught the ball in flight and fired in the same motion as the horn sounded. Unfortunately, his short shot nipped the corner of the glass and fell harmlessly to the floor.

The Chargers lose two seniors, Johnston and Cody Jones. A solid nucleus returns for the 2010-11 season and Campbell is excited about making another run at the postseason. "I'm disappointed that things didn't work out for us this year, but I'm excited about playing with Jaime (Smith), Josh (Magette), X (Xavier Baldwin), Tyler (Hanback) and the rest of the guys," he said.

UAH (23-6) will be the seventh seed in the South Region and will face a familiar foe in No. 2 seed and 11th-ranked Rollins College (25-5) at 1 p.m. at Arkansas Tech's Tucker Coliseum. Rollins is the Sunshine State Conference Tournament champion, while the Chargers are the runners-up in the Gulf South Conference tournament.

In the previous two trips to the South Region tournament, it was Rollins who ended the Chargers' season. In 2003, the Tars beat UAH 76-61 in Winter Park, Fla. Then in 2006, Rollins edged the Chargers 63-58 at Delta State's Walter Sillers Arena. The two teams have only met on one other occasion, the 2003 Coca-Cola Classic at Montevallo. Rollins also won that game 65-52.

Overall, the Chargers are 1-3 in NCAA Tournament play. Their win came in 2000 when they defeated Lemoyne-Owen College 88-71 in Lakeland, Fla. The Chargers were eliminated in the next round that season by Tampa.

In the other match-ups on Saturday, No. 3 seed Florida Southern (SSC) takes on Sunshine State Conference tournament runner-up and No. 6 seed Barry at 3:30, while host, top-seed and GSC tournament championship Arkansas Tech battles No. 8 seed, SIAC tournament champion Tuskegee at 6 p.m. No. 4 seed Valdosta State (GSC) caps off the evening against No. 5 seed Clark-Atlanta (SIAC)  at 8:30 p.m.

The winners will play on Sunday in the semifinals at 6 and 8:30, with the finals being held on Tuesday night following the women's South Region final at approximately 8:30.