MONTGOMERY—After a week off for the Christmas holidays the Hornets are back in the gym putting their final preparations in for their game with cross-town rival Auburn University Montgomery.  The two teams will meet Saturday, Dec. 28 at 4 p.m. in the Dunn-Oliver Acadome.
 
The meeting will be the 32^nd time the two teams have met with ASU holding a 24-7 lead in the series.  The last time the two teams met was during the 2009-10 season with the Hornets pulling away late for a 79-66 win.
 
After playing 10 of their first 12 games on the road the Hornets will begin a three-game home stand with AUM.  It is a game between two teams that know each other fairly well.
 
“It is going to be a tough inner-city ball game,” Head Coach Lewis Jackson said.  “They are always tough and Coach Chapman always does a good job with his team and we have to come out and work hard, because we know they will.”
 
The Hornets have shown some improvement over the course of their first 12 games, but there are a lot of things the coaching staff is continuing to push for improvement in.
 
“We are working on becoming more efficient offensively,” Jackson said.  “We also have to continue to improve on the defensive side of the ball.  We have to move our feet, get in position to take charges and rebound the first missed shot.  We have to make it difficult for them (AUM) to score.  Those are the thing we are concentrating on and that's what it's going to take to prepare to hit the floor tomorrow (Saturday) against AUM.”
 
Josh Freelove continues to lead the Hornets in scoring at 12.1 points per game.  In three previous games before the Tulane Classic, Freelove had only scored 14 total points.  He played much better in the Classic, averaging 14.5 points per game and shooting 51 percent (12-23) from the field.  He was named to the All-Classic Team following the event.
 
Shawntez Patterson and Phillip Crawford have added some offensive punch to the Hornets as they are scoring 9.4 and 9.1 points per game.
 
Freshman Jamel Waters has started seven games at the point guard position and has started to play the position older than his freshman status.  Over the past five games he as 24 assists and only 11 turnovers and is coming off a game against Texas Pan American where he scored a career-high 10 points and added seven assists with only one turnover.
 
The Hornets have pushed their team shooting percentage to 40 percent and are shooting their free throws much better.  Over the last road trip they were able to get to the free throw line where they shot 74 free throws and hit 49 for 67 percent.
 
AUM comes into the game shooting 45 percent from the field and 35 percent from beyond the three point line.  They average almost 68 points per game and are led in scoring by Reshad Bickham's 11.9 points per game.  Dominique Ellis averages 10 points and a team-leading 4.5 rebounds per game.
 
“They have a good post guy and they have good, quick guards,” Jackson said.  “They move the ball well and like to play off the dribble.  The challenge for us is we have to move our feet and keep their guys in front of us.”
 
This game will be ASU's final non-conference game of the season with the Hornets set to play Jackson State and Grambling State to open conference play as part of the current three-game home stand.
 
“It is good to be back here at our place so we want to take advantage of these opportunities,” Jackson said.  “We have one tomorrow with a familiar foe but to be here at home we want to come out and play hard and give ourselves and opportunity to win.