Game Notes
JACKSON, Miss.—The Alabama State University (9-20/7-9 SWAC) men's basketball team has arrived in Jackson to begin their final regular season road trip of the season. The road trip begins Thursday, Feb. 28 against Jackson State (8-17/7-9 SWAC) at 7:30 p.m.
The game will have a significant meaning in the conference standings as both teams enter the contest with identical 7-9 conference records. With each team being tied for fifth in the conference, the winner of the game will be a game ahead of the other with one game left to play before the conference tournament begins on March 12.
JSU had a rough start to the conference season dropping their first six conference games, but has turned that around and won seven of their last 10 games. Included among those are wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Prairie View.
“We are going to face a Jackson State team that is playing their best basketball of the season,” Head Coach
Lewis Jackson said. “They have really turned their season around and we are going to have our hands full tomorrow night.”
JSU is third in the conference in scoring and boasts three double-digit scorers. Kelsey Howard leads the Tigers with a 14.9 points per game average and Dundrecous Nelson averages 14.3. He scored 27 points against the Hornets in the previous meeting back in Montgomery Jan. 2.
Christian Williams averages 13.4 points per game and leads the team in steals with 44. Willie Readus averages a team-best 5.1 rebounds per game while Jonathan Lewis leads the team in assists with 46.
“You just can't concentrate on one player because they have three really good scorers and they also have strong supporting players,” Jackson said. “This is a tough place to play and it is going to be a tremendous challenge for us to come out of here with a win.”
The Hornets continued to be led in scoring by Joshua Freelove's 13.8 points per game.
Phillip Crawford's play has his scoring average up to 12.1 points per game and he leads ASU in rebounding averaging 6.0 per game. Crawford also has posted double-doubles in five of the team's past eight games.
Jamel Waters continues to lead ASU in both assists (95) and steals (50).
“When we play together and play hard good things can happen for us,” Jackson said. “We get in a habit of taking too many bad shots and not boxing out for rebounds and that gets us out of whack.”
“I was a little disappointed with how the guys played down the stretch against Texas Southern,” Jackson added. “You have to play with poise and you have to play with some patience and you have to execute your offense and that is what we are going to have to do to pick up a road win at Jackson State.”
ASU was able to pull out a hard-fought 70-66 win in the first meeting between the two teams when they met in Montgomery. The Hornets trailed at halftime 26-25 but came out in the second half and outscored JSU 45-40 to pull out the four point win.
Nelson was the only JSU player to reach double digits with his 27 points.
Two players came off the bench for ASU to reach double-digits led by Denzell McDaniel's team-high 16 points.
Ryan Watts also came off the bench to add 10. Waters was the lone starter to score in double digits with 15 points.
ASU was able to out rebound JSU by a 40-35 margin with
Shawntez Patterson and
Stephawn Brown leading the way with seven each.
ASU will end the regular season Saturday, March 2 at Grambling. Game time is scheduled for 5 p.m.
