Jan. 16, 2006

Final Stats

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Mired in a five-game losing streak, sitting in last place in the Southwestern Athletic Conference standings and facing defending champion and No. 1 nemesis Alabama A&M, Alabama State was looking for a high-energy performance to get into the win column.

The Hornets got that energy from Akeim Claborn, who scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and Richard Lott, who posted his first career double-double (16 points, 10 rebounds), as ASU won going away, 81-68. But it may have been a lack of energy that turned the tide of the game.

The lights went out twice at the Joe L. Reed Acadome during the game, leaving 5,714 fans in the dark and seemingly turning the tide of the game each time.

ASU came out on fire, connecting on four of its first seven shots - two of them 3-pointers - in racing out to an early advantage. The lead had opened to 15 points - 36-21 - and the Dome was rockin'.

"We definitely caught them off-guard with the way we came out," said senior guard LaMarquis Blake, who had 13 points, four rebounds and three assists. "You could just tell they weren't ready for that."

Then, the lights went out - literally. A power outage partially darkened the court and in the approximately 24 minutes it took to get the lights back in working order, the Hornets lost some of their juice.

Alabama A&M was able to cut the deficit to 42-31 on a Joe Martin 3-pointer at the buzzer, then opened the second half with a 13-2 run in the first five minutes to tie the game at 44.

Then, at the 10:36 mark, the lights went out again, this time knocking out power to most of the ASU campus. The only light that seemed to emmenate from the arena was supplied by the countless number of cell phones that shone through the darkness.

But the Hornets had their own bright ideas.

"That was wild," Blake said of the power outages. "But coach told us after the second one, 'The first one hurt us. Let's make this one hurt them.' And that's what we did."

When the power was restored, a 3-pointer by Obie Trotter just inside the 10-minute mark had given the Bulldogs a 57-55 advantage and it looked as if the Hornets were on their heels. Instead, ASU regained the lead and used a 15-4 run to turn out the lights on Alabama A&M.

Cedric Mitchell, in his first start of the season, scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds as four Hornets scored in double figures. Bama State shot 47 percent from the field and 81 percent from the free throw line, easily the team's best performance of the year and - hopefully - a sign of things to come.

"That's the new ASU Hornets you saw tonight," said head coach Lewis Jackson, who earned his first SWAC victory. "After Monday's game, after everybody had left the arena and all the lights were out, I sat down with the guys and we had a long talk about everything.

"They were embarrassed about the way they'd played. And they promised they were going to turn it up a level. The way they played out here tonight, that's the same way they played in practice all week. I knew we were going to be a different team out here tonight."