MONTOGMERY—Alabama State University men's basketball team was back on the practice court today two days after an exciting come-from-behind win over Texas Southern University.  Even after a day off, the effects of that hard win may have been lingering in this morning's practice session.
 
“We were just okay today in practice,” head coach Lewis Jackson said.  “We are trying to work on our offense some and trying to do some of the things we know Valley is going to do.  They will shoot it quick get up and down the floor and spread it out.  We still have to get better on that and we have a couple of days to work on it.  We will continue to work on it and try to get better.  We are just trying to make our offense better and to continue and try to get better defensively.”
 
MVSU will come into the game with the highest scoring offense in the conference, but they are ninth in the conference in points allowed.
 
“We have to be able to make shots against Valley,” Jackson stated.  “Our goal is to establish something around the basket, because we know their bigs will hit the glass so they can get out and run, but we would like to attack them inside.  So we want to get out and score but we want to score around the basket without shooting all jump shots.”
 
The Hornets' defense has struggled at times this season, but in the final nine minutes of the second half when ASU was cutting into Texas Southern's 18-point lead, the Hornets may have played some of their best defense of the season.  They held TSU to only one of six in field goal shooting and forced 8 turnovers during the 24-6 run.
 
“Everyone was on the same page on defense and we knew what we were doing and what we needed to get done,” Jackson added.  “We went from a zone press into a zone defense and it was effective.  It took them (TSU) out of getting in the lane and it turned out to be very effective.  Like I said, we were all on the same page and we rebounded their first shot and we out rebounded them by a good margin.  We also had 21 offensive rebounds, which was big for us.”
 
The Hornets will practice on Thursday before boarding the bus Friday morning to go to Mississippi, where they will hold their Friday practice at Mississippi Valley.