MONTGOMERY—Kenderek Washington and Philip Crawford had 21 points each to lead Alabama State University to a hard-fought 78-72 win over Reinhardt University in the Hornets final preconference basketball game.
 
The win was big for Head Coach Lewis Jackson as it gives him his 100^th career win as head coach of the Hornets.  He becomes the fifth coach in ASU history to reach to milestone and he only trails C.J. Dunn (303 wins), James Oliver (294), Rob Spivery (128) and Bernard Boozer (102) in career wins.
 
The Eagles started the second half trailing by 14 and after ASU scored the first four points of the half saw themselves down 44-26 with 18:19 left in the game.  From there the visitors begin to cut into the Hornets lead led by David Lawson's 16 second half points.
 
The Hornets also played into the visitor's hands as they committed 15 second half turnovers and only hit 11 of their 19 free throws.
 
Meanwhile, Reinhardt was able to hit five three-pointers in the second half, making three consecutive at one time while they were on a 14-5 run to cut the 18 point lead down to nine at 46-37.
 
Washington hit two three's and Ivory White (14 points) added one on three consecutive possessions, wrapped around a Lawson three, to stop the run and push the lead back out to 15 (55-40) with 11:30 left in the game.
 
Again, the Eagles would not go away and again begin to cut into the lead as they outscored ASU 29-18 over the next 10 minutes to get within three at 74-71 on a steal and layup from Jerome Carmichael with 21 seconds left.
 
Over the next three seconds of clock time Ryan Watts was fouled hit two free throws, stole the inbounds pass, was fouled and hit two more free throws to put ASU up 78-71 with 16 seconds left and basically put the game out of reach.
 
“I had ripped into Ryan because of the way he was playing with some turnovers,” head coach Lewis Jackson said.  “But he got a chance to get back in the game because we needed another ball handler and he came up with two big plays and got the line and made four free throws.  That was big for us and put us in a position where we could close it out.”
 
In the first half the Hornets did not score until Kenderek Washington hit two free throws at the 14:37 mark, but after those points the Hornets seemed to get untracked, scoring 14 consecutive points to go from down 4-0 into a 14-4 lead.
 
ASU held Reinhardt scoreless for 9:41 while building up the 10-point lead.  The Hornets were led by Crawford's 15 points and 10 rebounds in the first half to help build the lead.  Crawford scored nine consecutive points during ASU's run as they built as much as a 20-point first half lead (37-17).
 
“Philip is a guy that is a little unorthodox, but he plays hard, rebounds and takes charges,” Jackson stated.  “He provides a lot for us down around the basket and we are excited to see him come out and play the way we thought he could play.”
 
ASU forced 16 turnovers in the first half and out rebounded Reinhardt 25-16, including 12 offensive rebounds that led to numerous second chance points as ASU went into the locker room with a 40-26 halftime lead.
 
Crawford's point and rebound total were both career-highs for him and Washington scored in double digits for the 11^th time in the 12 games this season.
 
Jeff Middlebrooks set a career-high with 11 assists.  The Hornets also won the battle of the boards 48-35 which included 19 offensive rebounds.
 
David Lawson finished with a game-high 22 points for the Eagles and Tyler Blackwell had 12 and Tareek Roach came off the bench to score 11.
 
“We wanted to get Reinhardt on the schedule because of the way they played,” Jackson said.  “They are very quick off the dribble, they have guards that can get to the lane and get their own shots as well as shoot the three and that is the way most of the teams in our league play.  It gave us the challenge of what we will face for the next 18 ball games.”
 
“I thought we played well early on,” Jackson added.  “We got up by a few points and then we got complacent in what we were doing and the guys got away from doing what we did to give us the lead.  Like all good teams do, they came out and made a run, and we did not do a very good job of handling the press.  We will go back and look at the film and try to get better.”
 
ASU moves to 3-9 overall and breaks a three game losing streak.  Reinhardt moves to 7-8 on the season.
 
The Hornets will jump into Southwestern Athletic Conference action on Tuesday, Jan. 3^rd at Grambling State University.  The opening tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

-HORNETS-