Jan. 23, 2006

Final Stats

BATON ROUGE, La. - The drama has been plentiful when Alabama State and Southern have hit the hardwood over the last several seasons, as many of those games have gone down to the wire.

Add the intrigue of the Hornets going against their former head coach Rob Spivery, who has led the Jaguars to the top of the Southwestern Athletic Conference this season, and there didn't seem to be any reason to believe that this intensifying rivalry would need much more juice.

But both teams supplied more than enough energy at the Clark Activity Center Monday night. ASU dismantled a 14-point second half deficit and held the lead with less than a minute remaining in regulation. But the Jaguars came out on top in the end, posting a 72-68 overtime victory that ended the Hornets' modest two-game win streak.

"We should've won it in regulation," head coach Lewis Jackson said after the game. "We have guys who are still learning how tough it is to play on the road in the SWAC.

"We have to finish out games and we didn't tonight. But I'm still proud of the guys. They played with a lot of effort and energy."

The Hornets (4-14, 2-5) needed the extra fuel reserves in the second half as the Jaguars (7-11, 7-1) held a nine-point advantage at halftime and took a 48-33 lead with 12:56 left in the second half after a 3-pointer by Chris Alexander.

But the ASU reserves, led by guards Dustin Richmond and Herbert Warren, ignited a big comeback. Warren, a junior, scored 10 of his 12 pointes over the next seven minutes and Richmond added five of his 12 during that span, including a 3-pointer with 5:48 left in regulation that gave Bama State a 55-54 advantage.

ASU would ultimately take a 62-60 lead with 62 seconds left and forced three misses from the Jaguars to get the ball back with a chance to pull out the win. But a turnover gave the ball back to Southern, which got a bucket from Alexander with nine seconds remaining to force overtime.

The Hornets had their last lead with 2:15 left in overtime. But a Peter Cipriano bucket gave the Jags the lead for good as ASU mishandled its final three possessions (two missed shots from the field and a turnover) in the extra session.

Akeim Claborn scored 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Hornets, who are in action again on Saturday when they host Texas Southern at 5 p.m. Alexander scored a game-high 26 points to lead the Jaguars.