March 4, 2006

Final Stats

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - By the time the last minute of Saturday's Jackson State-Alabama State men's basketball game came around, there wasn't much left for either team to accomplish.

The Hornets were on their way to a 93-79 victory over the Tigers that clinched a seventh consecutive 10-win campaign in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. ASU also knew it would battle JSU again in the first round of the conference tournament in the 4-5 game at 10 a.m.

All that was on the table was the seeding. The Hornets needed to win by 13 points to get the No. 4 seed and Jackson State did everything it could to get its deficit to 12 or less.

After the Tigers dismantled part of what was a 22-point lead to 11 with less than six seconds remaining, ASU head coach Lewis Jackson called timeout to set up a play, one that ultimately turned into an Andrew Hayles 3-pointer at the buzzer that established the final margin and put the Hornets in the home whites for the first round of the tournament.

"That was big," Jackson said. "We accomplished everything in this game that we wanted to. Knowing that we're going to be facing this team again in the first round, I think it's even more important that we won the way we did. This should give us a lot of confidence."

The win was also important because it snapped a three-game losing streak for the Hornets and sent the ASU senior class of Akeim Claborn, LaMarquis Blake and Alexander Oliver, who combined to score 42 points, grab 17 rebounds, and dish out 10 assists in their final jaunt at the Joe L. Reed Acadome.

"I think we just got a little full of ourselves those last three games," said Claborn, who scored 21 points and pulled down 15 rebounds. "We were doing things like we were at the start of the year again -- not practicing hard, not running. Tonight was different. We were ready to play and it showed."

Both teams were hot from the floor in the first half, shooting over 50 percent. But the Hornets led 44-34 at the break and were able to extend the lead as high as 22 points in the second half.

Trey Johnson scored a game-high 31 points for Jackson State. Five Hornets scored in double figures, including Hayles (24) and Blake (14). Richard Lott, Jr. (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Joel Bosh (12 points, 10 rebounds) joined Claborn in the double-double department.