MONTGOMERY—The Alabama State University men's basketball team will be home for the first time this season when they play host to Northwestern State University Thursday, Nov. 17 at 6 p.m.
 
The Hornets (0-2) will be going for their first win of the young season after dropping their first two games on the road to Marshall University (RV) and the University of Cincinnati (21^st), but are looking forward to their first home game of the season.
 
“This is our only home game in our first 12 games this season and we are excited about being in a familiar place and hopefully we can get some shots to fall this time around, because that is certainly something we have not been able to do in the previous two road games,” head coach Lewis Jackson said.
 
Senior Kenderek Washington leads ASU in scoring averaging 14.5 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per outing after the first two games.  He is shooting 46 percent (11-24) from the field and 42 percent (5-12) from beyond the three point line.
 
Washington is coming off a huge game against Cincinnati where he scored a game-high 18 points and collected eight rebounds to go along with his team-high three assists and five steals.
 
Another senior, Ivory White, is averaging 6.5 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.
 
Freshman Luther Page has started both games for ASU in the post and has come out of the first two games second on the team in scoring at 7.0 points per game and is tied with Washington for team-high in rebounds, averaging 5.5 per game.  Page more than held his own against Cincinnati, who had two 6-10 post players on him during the game.  He finished with 12 points and eight rebounds.
 
Northwestern comes into Montgomery owning a 1-1 record after their first two games.  The Demons defeated LeTourneau 87-61 in their season-opener and fell at Arkansas-Little Rock 72-66 in their last outing.
 
NSU has two players scoring in double-digits led by Gary Roberson's 12.5 average.  James Hulbin has come off the bench in the first two games and is averaging 10.5 points per game and six rebounds.  William Mosley leads the team in rebounds averaging nine per outing while also scoring nine points per game.
 
Like ASU's previous opponent, Cincinnati, NSU will come into Thursday's contest with a larger team than the Hornets.  Mosley is the team's starter at center at 6-7, but behind him are 6-10 O.J. Evans and 6-9 Marvin Frazier.  Hulbin comes in at 6-8 and NSU has two players standing 6-6 in Patrick Robinson and David Ulak.
 
“They bring in a great deal of size, they have a 6-10, a 6-9, 6-8 and two 6-6's, and they do a good job of rotating their big's in and out of the game,” Jackson said.  So we know we have a challenge of facing another big front line, and it is a challenge we certainly welcome.  The guys have been working hard on the things we are trying to get better at.  We know it is going to be a tall challenge, but we certainly look forward to it.”
 
There have been many things the coaching staff has seen from the Hornets where improvement must be made, but effort is not one of them.
 
“The effort our guys have continued to give is a positive for us,” Jackson stated.  “The one thing about our guys is I am pretty sure they are going to come out and play hard night in and night out.  When you are doing those things you give yourself a chance to win if you can knock down a few baskets here and there, and again, up to this point we have not been able to do that, but the guys have been giving good effort and we have gone up against two good teams and our guys fought hard.  We were out manned but they played hard and did not quit and that is the thing we can build on.”