Box Score MONTGOMERY—Tramaine Butler, Jeff Middlebrooks and Philip Crawford combined for 35 points to lead Alabama State University (7-10/4-1) to a hard fought 53-50 win over Alabama A&M University (3-11/1-4) in a Southwestern Athletic Conference men's basketball battle.
 
With the Hornets trailing by five at halftime, they came out in the second half and outscored the visitors 9-1 in the first four minutes to lead 30-27 at the first media break.  Middlebrooks gave ASU the lead with a three at 16:48 in the second half and ASU never trailed again.
 
ASU went on to extend the lead to nine points on three occasions, the last being at 44-35 on a Ryan Watts free throw with 6:47 left in the game.  From there AAMU worked their way back into the game with consecutive three pointers from Brandon Allen and Jeremy Crutcher, wrapped around a Watts field goal to cut the lead to 46-41.
 
Two Middlebrooks free throws and a Stephawn Brown put back basket pushed ASU's lead back out to 50-42 with 2:35 left.  From there the Bulldogs made another run with back-to-back threes from Allen and Green Hill, which made the lead 50-48 with 1:16 left in the game.
 
After an offensive foul was called on Butler, AAMU had a chance to take the lead or tie the game, but Crawford blocked the potential field goal and Middlebrooks rebounded the shot and was fouled.  After a free throw from Middlebrooks, Ivory White came out of nowhere to block a potential game-tying three pointer with Crawford pulling down the rebound.
 
Crawford ended the game knocking down two of four free throws wrapped around a Demarquelle Tabb put back for the final 53-50 score.
 
“It is great to play against A&M because we know it is going to be a tough game,” head coach Lewis Jackson said.  “In the first half we just kind of went through the motions, but we came out in the second half with a little bit more aggression  and it is always good to win.  We were down at half and came back and then had to hold them off down the stretch.  It was a great team win.”
 
Butler led the way with 13, followed by Middlebrooks with 12 and Crawford's 10.  The win was huge for ASU considering leading scorer Kenderek Washington sat out the game and Ivory White did not score, but did chip in with a team-high eight rebounds and two blocked shots.
 
Brown was in the spotlight starting for Washington and had a solid game with nine points, seven rebounds and two steals in only his third start of the season.
 
Tabb had a game-high 17 points and 11 rebounds to lead AAMU.  The Hornets did a good job on the Bulldogs leading scorer Casey Canty.  He entered the game second in the conference in scoring averaging 15.2 points per game.  He finished the game with only five.
 
ASU shot 48 percent in the second half and held AAMU to only 27 percent.  AAMU only hit seven field goals after halftime, but four of those were three pointers, all coming in the final six minutes of the game.
 
AAMU out rebounded ASU 40-33, but had 19 turnovers compared to 13 for the Hornets.  AAMU also did not help their cause at the free throw line only hitting 11 of 20.  They hit all five of their attempts in the first half, but only hit six of 15 in the second.  ASU hit 12 of their 17 attempts for 71 percent.
 
“Somebody had to step up tonight and tonight it was a total team effort and that was good,” Jackson said.  “We have the type of team where anyone can step up and make things happen.  White did not score a basket tonight but he was big defensively and we got some points from Philip, Tramaine and Jeff down the stretch which was big.”
 
Not a lot went right for the Hornets in the first half, as they shot poorly (25.8%), were out rebounded (22-14) and only hit one of their nine three point attempts.  Even with all that went wrong ASU only trailed 26-21, with the largest reason being the 13 turnovers ASU forced AAMU into.
 
AAMU did close the first half out on a 10-4 run to turn a 17-16 deficit into a 26-21 lead.  Tabb had seven points and four rebounds to lead AAMU's first half effort.
 
The Hornets will be back on the road next week when they travel to Lorman, Miss., to face Alcorn State University on Thursday, Jan. 21 at 7:30 p.m.