Women's Basketball 9/30/2013 6:09:00 PM

Freeman-Jackson and The Lady Hornets Release Schedule and Begins Practice

The 2013-2014 Women's Basketball schedule has been released and the team has begun their road to the crown with preseason practice today at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome.

This season's schedule will showcase non-conferences match-ups against in-state school's Faulkner (exhibition), Troy, Stillman, Samford and the University of Mobile.

The Lady Hornets will also take on powerhouse Mississippi State, Florida A&M, Mercer, Bluefield, and Savannah State. Alabama State will close their non-conference schedule with a tough matchup against Georgia Tech for a two day tournament in Atlanta, Ga.

"Preseason has always been tough, especially playing teams like Mississippi State and Georgia Tech," said head coach Freda Freeman-Jackson. "We us preseason competition to help us see where we are as a team and were we need to go in preparation for conference play. We have a lot of experience coming back to help, so we should fair pretty well in these preseason match ups."

November 5th kicks off the season for the Lady Hornets as they host Faulker University for their home opener at 6 p.m. in the Dunn-Oliver Acadome in an exhibition contest. For the remainder of November the Hornets will host a cluster of home games as Troy comes to the Dome on the 8th, Stillman on the 12th, and Bluefield State on the 16^th and finishing their home November games against the University of Mobile on the 19th.

"We decided to play Bluefield State this season because James Oliver, Jr. who is the head coach of Bluefield and whose father's name is on the Acadome floor. This is where coach Oliver (J.J.) started his career as a student and then as an assistant coach here at Alabama State. We look at this as a homecoming for him as well as we felt that this would be a good match-up." said Freeman-Jackson.

In December, ASU will play Samford in the Acadome on December 4th, then travel to Starkville, Miss. for a 5 p.m. showdown against Mississippi State. The Lady Hornets will head back home to Montgomery for match-ups against Florida A&M on December 17th, Mercer on Dec. 20th, and Savannah State on Dec. 22nd before ending their non-conference schedule against Georgia Tech tournament December 29th and 30th in Atlanta, Ga.

The Lady Hornets will open up SWAC play on the road against Grambling State January 4^th, before heading to Jackson State on January 6th. Both games are slated for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off. The Lady Hornets will then come home for games against Mississippi Valley State (Jan.11th), University Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Jan.13th) and then will host in-state rival Alabama A&M on January 18th at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome.

Alabama State will then be on the road to face Alcorn State January 25th, and then head to Baton Rouge, La. to face Southern Jan 27th. February will be the halfway point of the season as they travel to Mississippi Valley (Feb.8), Arkansas Pine Bluff (Feb.10) then head up to Normal, Ala. to face rival Alabama A&M (Feb.15).

Upon returning home the Lady Hornets will host Alcorn State (Feb.22) and Southern (Feb.24), then head to Texas for a two game swing first against Texas Southern (Mar.1) and then take on Prairie View A&M (Mar.3).

Alabama State will host another pair of home games as Grambling State visits the Dome on March 6 and then Jackson State comes on the 8^th to close out regular season play. This year's SWAC 2014 basketball tournament will be held in Houston, Texas March 11-15.

With the schedule set, the Lady Hornets start preparations for their preseason games with the first day of practice. Alabama State finished their off season conditioning in full stride as they get ready for their showcase on October 11 for Late Night Madness.

"The transition from off season work outs to the opening of preseason practice was pretty productive," said Freeman-Jackson. "We made sure that we had the ladies do a lot of distant running up to at least three miles to assist with their endurance. It's always good to come in tip-top shape before we start practice and I think that my staff did a good job of that. We are an up temple team so it's important for the ladies to be ready to run the ball."

"I felt today was a good day with practicing early this morning working on fundamental items and then going to the weight room working their upper bodies and finally coming to an afternoon practice working on team oriented plays. The ladies were really receptive with what we were trying to get done today, before getting the season on the way."

For all information on the Lady Hornets basketball team and all other Alabama State sports, can be found on bamastatesports.com. We can also be found on Twitter.com (ASUbuzz) or Facebook.com (ASUbuzz).

GO HORNETS

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