NORMAL, Ala.—A cold shooting second half doomed the Hornets in a 64-57 loss at Alabama A&M, a game which saw the Hornets only hit two field goals over the final eight minutes of the game.
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Stephawn Brown field goal with 7:42 left in the game evened the score at 50, but from their ASU could only manage seven more points with five of those coming from the free throw line. It was a half that saw ASU only shoot 39 percent from the field.
“We just could not get anything going in the second half,” Head Coach
Lewis Jackson said. “We tried to play our offense through our bigs and we had some good things going early, but our defense just broke down for us and we allowed them to get to the free throw line.”
It is not the AAMU shot the ball much better as they only shot 37 percent in the half, but they were able to get to the free throw line 21 times in the second half and hit 17 of those. Over the final five minutes of the game, AAMU scored 10 points, all from the free throw line.
Phillip Crawford led the Hornets with 16 points on eight of 13 shooting.
Jamel Waters had 12 points and a game-high four assists.
“We really tried to play inside out and when we would run the play the way we called it we wound up taking a tougher shot than we had too or we would turn the ball over.”
The Hornets did a good job on AAMU's leading scorer Demarquelle Tabb, holding him to 4 of 11 shooting, but he was able to get to the free throw and attempted 13, hitting nine. He finished with a game-high 17 points. Jeremy Crutcher scored 16 and Brandon Ellis added 14.
For the first time in the past six games, the Hornets were out rebounded as AAMU won the battle of the boards 35-27. Ellis had a game-high eight and Justan Banks added six.
ASU shot 42 percent from the field, and only hit two of their 12 three point attempts. Crawford and
Stephawn Brown led the Hornets' efforts on the boards with five rebounds each.
AAMU shot 46 percent from the field and hit four of their 10 three point shots. The difference was at the free throw line where AAMU hit 20 of their 29 attempts, while the Hornets only attempted 11, hitting nine.
AAMU held a 33-30 halftime lead as Crutcher led the way with 13 points, including a three-point play with three seconds left in the first half to a 30-all tie and give the Bulldogs the halftime lead.
AAMU shot 52 percent in the first half and hit three of their six three point attempts. Banks led AAMU with six first half rebounds.
ASU shot 45 percent from the field in the first half, but only hit two of their nine three point attempts. ASU had 15 first half rebounds with Crawford leading the way with four. Crawford and Waters had six points each in the first half.
“You have to give A&M credit they came out and wanted it more than we did,” Jackson said. “They were a lot more focused than we were down the stretch.”
ASU falls to 5-13 overall and 3-2 in the conference while AAMU moves to 7-9 overall and also stands at 3-2 in the SWAC.
ASU gets a much needed break after playing six games in 15 days. Their next game will be on Saturday, Jan. 19 when they host Southern University at 5 p.m.
