Down by as many as nine points in the first half, Alabama State women's basketball went on a 7-0 run to get within one point, but it was not enough to overcome Precious Bridges 19 points as Mercer dropped ASU 65-55, Sunday afternoon at Hawkins Arena in Macon, Ga.
 
Alabama State (1-6) had three players in double digits Kierra Paige and Quentori Alford each had 11 points apiece and Ashley Jones added 10.  Erica Henderson chipped in a season high of nine points in the loss.
 
"We have too many long periods of time not scoring," said head coach Freda Freeman-Jackson.  "There are too many times that we are not playing great defense and in this game we shouldn't have gaps that long, we should be able to close out, we are going to have to put two halves together.  The second half I thought we played great basketball for about 15 minutes then we had another break in play.  We have to play smart and aggressive in the game of basketball if you don't you will come up short."
 
After battling neck-and-neck with the Bears for much of the first half, Alabama State couldn't capitalize on key opportunities to maintain their once five point lead.  Mercer (6-3) would then take advantage of the Lady Hornets 12 turnovers converting them into 15 points going into the half up 31-22.
 
The second half saw Alabama State chip the Bears lead down to three points with 15:52 left in the half.  The Lady Hornets would continue its run to get within one point of the Mercer Bears after a Taila Arrington lay-up with a little under 12 minutes left.  Mercer would then reel off a 10-0 run never turning back in the 65-55 victory over the Lady Hornets.
 
"I did see some good things with this being the first day back for Ashley Jones," Freeman-Jackson commented. "Once we put all of our pieces together and figure out that there is only one way to play this game is to be extremely aggressive and I think that we will be ok.  Although Kierra had 11 points and only played for 14 minutes due to foul trouble just imagine if she wasn't in foul trouble and she played 28 minutes, she would have doubled her production."
 
"We are still going to have to tweak some things on the defensive end.  I feel that if we can keep teams within 50 point range defensively then we would have an opportunity to win.  We can't allow teams to score 65 and 70 points and think that we will be successful.  In order for us to be successful we are going to have to lock down and play possession basketball."
 
Alabama State out-rebounded the Bears 41-34, as Alford contributed nine of those boards.  Mercer shot 23-of-60 from the field (38.3) against 16-of-43 shooting from ASU (37.2). 
 
"We out-rebounded this team and got on the boards," Freeman-Jackson said. "We just have to play better defense.  All the little things make the difference."
The Lady Hornet's will return to the court Tuesday, December 18 in Savannah, Ga. against Savannah State at 6 p.m. CT.