BATON ROUGE, La.—Alabama State (7-12/4-3 SWAC) ran into a red-hot Southern University (10-11/6-2 SWAC) team in a 68-56 loss to the Jags on their home court. The loss was the second consecutive conference loss.
SU had three players reach double-digits with Quinton Doggett and Derick Beltran sharing game-high honors with 17 points each. Jameel Grace had 16 points and the SWAC leader in assists had five.
SU shot 54 percent from the field and that includes 57 percent (13-23) in the second half. Southern was also able to turn 12 ASU turnovers into 11 points and the Jags kept the pace of the game in their favor continually pushing the ball at the Hornets and had 14 fast break points.
Ivory White was the only Hornet to reach double digits with 12 points. He recorded his fourth double-double finishing the game with a game-high 11 rebounds. The Hornets did out rebound SU 45-27 for their largest rebound differential of the season.
Philip Crawford had nine points and
Jeff Middlebrooks and
Stephawn Brown had eight points each.
ASU struggled from the field finishing the game shooting 33 percent (18-54) from the field and 33 percent (7-21) from the three point line. The game could have been a little closer, but ASU had one of their worse shooting performances of the season from the free throw line only connecting on 13 of their 28 attempts (46%).
“We have some senior guards and upper classmen, but we don't have any leadership right now and we are not playing the way we need to,” head coach
Lewis Jackson said. “We talk about doing things to win ball games but we did not do anything tonight. They came out and took it to us and were able to get out on the break off some rebounds.”
“We are not playing smart enough. We are fouling too much and not taking care of the basketball and we are taking bad shots. We have got to get something out of our bigs in the paint; we are not getting anything under the basket. We turn it over entirely too much around the basket.”
The Hornets went into halftime trailing 35-27 and it could have been worse, but the Hornets defense held the Jags scoreless over the final 3:22 of the first stanza while trimming a 14-point SU lead (35-21) down to seven, with the final three coming at the horn on a three from White.
Southern came out of the game blistering hot and was shooting 62 percent (13-21) from the field, 50 percent from the three (3-6) and hit all six of their free throws in the opening 17 minutes. Beltran and Doggett each hit double figures in the half with 10 points each.
ASU could have been closer but only hit four of their 10 free throws, missing the front end of two one-and-ones. ASU only shot 35 percent (9-26) in the first half with White and Middlebrooks scoring eight each. The Hornets did out rebound SU 21-14, but SU turned six ASU turnovers in six points.
The Hornets will return to action Saturday, Jan. 28 when they host Prairie View A&M at 5 p.m.
