The Alabama State University men's basketball team will begin a season-long three game conference home stand when they host Mississippi Valley State Saturday, Jan. 11 at 5 p.m.

The Hornets are coming off their conference opening road trip where they defeated Grambling State before falling at Jackson State on a 30+ foot buzzer beater.

ASU will enter the home stand sporting a 7-6 overall record and 1-1 in the conference while Mississippi Valley State stands 4-10 over and 0-1 in the SWAC.

The Hornets have spent the week working on some shortcomings that cropped up during the first two conference games and as always, defense has been on the minds of the coaching staff.

"We have been working on closing gaps and moving our feet on defense," Head Coach Lewis Jackson said. "Against Jackson State I thought our kids played hard but we just did not play smart all the time. We really have to learn to close those gaps and you know everyone is going to have one or two guys they can put on the court that can score so we have to learn to keep guys in front of us because we have to help too much. So we have to improve on those things."

ASU's offense was sharp at times, but most of the two road games they struggled getting the ball through the hoop, so the team has spent some extra time working on their offense as well this week.

"Offensively we have got to try and play some inside-out games and get these guys some better looks around the basket as well as our guys out on the perimeter," Jackson said."

The Hornets will be seeing one of the top offenses in the conference when the Delta Devils come to the Acadome Saturday. Mississippi Valley State is the second leading scoring team in the nation averaging over 76 points per game. They are shooting 43 percent from the field which is third and are the second leading three point shooting team in the conference knocking down 35 percent of their three point attempts.

Jeffery Simmons has not played in all of MVSU's games, but when he has he has been their leading scorer at 16.8 points per game. Anthony McDonald has already hit 38 three point field goals on the season and is averaging 14.4 points per outing, while DeAngelo Priar averages 11.6 and James Currington is at 10.4.

Currington is also MVSU's rebounding leader averaging 6.4 and Jordan Washington runs the Delta Devils offense and has a team-high 33 assists.

"They (MVSU) are very aggressive on both ends of the court," Jackson said. "They are going to attack the basket offensively, open up the floor and try to drive the ball. They play with a lot of guards."

"Defensively, they are going to trap you every place on the court, so we are going to have to be aware of the traps and not make soft passes. We have our work cut out for us. By no means is this going to be the type of game where we do what we want. We are going to have to be proficient on offense, be able to take care of the ball and play good defense."

MVSU is second in the SWAC in steals averaging 8.2 per game, which will make the play of the ASU guards even more important. Jamel Waters and Terrance LeFlore have seen the bulk of playing time at the point position, but DeMarcus Robinson and Bobby Brown will also be used in helping get the ball up the court against Valley's pressure defense.

Waters continues to lead the SWAC in assists and is already closing in on his 100^th assist of the season. He averages 6.9 per game and is also one of the reasons the ASU coaching staff hopes to slow down the Valley offense since he is third in the conference in steals.

Robinson has taken over the team lead in scoring following his 27-point performance at Jackson State. He averages 13.7 points per game but Waters is not far behind at 13.5.

Luther Page and Maurice Strong continue to be two of the top rebounders in the conference with Page leading the team averaging 5.9 and Strong right behind at 5.8.

Saturday's action will be part of a double header with the women's game scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. It is also the first games of the season that will be shown live on HornetVision. The game can be heard live on WVAS FM 90.7 beginning with the pregame show 15 minutes before tipoff. All links can be found at bamastatesports.com.