Feb. 20, 2006

Final Stats

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - For Alabama State women's basketball under Freda Freeman-Jackson, losing a home game is rare event. Losing two or more in a season is an anomaly and losing two conference home contests is downright unacceptable.

So imagine what was going through the coach's mind after her team lost 69-61 to Southern Monday night at the Joe L. Reed Acadome.

It was the team's second straight home conference loss - something that has never happened during her eight-year tenure - and most likely ended any possibility the Lady Hornets had of winning a regular season Southwestern Athletic Conference championship.

"We're a young team that's still learning how to finish games," Freeman-Jackson said. "We had a chance to win at the end and we lost our composure. We left the best player in the SWAC open and she hits the 3-pointer and we were never able to recover."

Southern's Rolanda Monroe big shot only tied the game with 2:21 remaining but it marked the beginning of the end for the Lady Hornets (11-12, 8-6).

The Jaguars would finish the game on an 11-0 run, nearly matching the 12-0 run they used at the start of the second half that erased a 30-27 ASU halftime advantage.

"I told our girls at halftime that the first five minutes of each half are crucial. We just had so many turnovers," said Freeman-Jackson, who watched her team turn it over on its eight of its first nine second half possessions. "That's not a good thing when you're trying to beat a team contending for a SWAC title."

Still, Alabama State managed to get back in the ball game and retake the lead. A Tashia Holston 3-pointer with 7:25 remaining erased a nine-point deficit and gave Bama State a 50-49 lead.

From that point, the game stayed close. A 3-pointer by Shantae Robinson at the 3:22 mark was the Lady Hornets last field goal and two free throws by Latille Ross made the score 61-58 with 2:33 to go. Those were ASU's last points of the game. Monroe would score nine of Southern's last 11 points and finished with a game-high 24 points.

Robinson and Ross each had a team-high 15 points for ASU while Frantina Coleman had another strong all-around game, finishing with 13 points and seven rebounds.

Even though the Lady Hornets may have lost out on a chance to win a regular season SWAC title, Freeman-Jackson knows that her team still has aspirations of winning the conference tournament and making it to the NCAA tourney. But time is running short for the team to make its turnaround.

"We just want to go out and win the rest of our games and get to Birmingham. But we have to start by playing our best basketball our next four games."