MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Joshua Freelove led a trio of Hornets in double figures with 17 points as Alabama State defeated Grambling 69-56 in Southwestern Athletic Conference basketball action.
Freelove scored 13 of his points in the second half while
Bobby Brown scored 14 and
Stephawn Brown added 10.
ASU was in charge most of the game and actually led 55-25 after a
Bobby Brown dunk with 14:22 left in the game.
From there Grambling scored 12 consecutive points and ASU went cold from the field. Over an eight minute span the Tigers cut ASU's 30 point lead down to 15 (57-42) with 6:20 left in the game.
ASU pushed the lead back out to 21 (64-43) on two free throws from
Ryan Watts and five points from Freelove.
The Hornets only shot 32 percent from the field in the second half and finished shooting 42 percent for the game. ASU hit six of their 18 three point attempts and once again did a good job from the free throw line hitting 17 of their 23 attempts for 74 percent.
GSU shot the ball better in the second half at 44 percent and Peter Roberson led the Tigers with 14 points. Terry Rose came into the game scoring 17 a game for GSU and finished the game with 13.
“I was disappointed in how we finished out the game,” Head Coach
Lewis Jackson said. “We were up a good number of points and we totally got away from what got us there like defensive rebounding and hustling. It is a good win and anytime you can win it is good, but you want to win looking the best you can and I thought we got away from what we did and we let them get back and make a game of it.”
ASU had 37 rebounds with
Stephawn Brown's seven leading the way. ASU also finished with 15 assists and Freelove's career-high four led the team.
“You look up and Steph (Brown) is going to have six or seven boards and playing hard defense and communicating,” Jackson said. “It is just hard to keep him out of the lineup. We have bigger guys but he stays in the lineup because of what he does.”
ASU pulled out to a 40-21 lead at halftime behind a balanced offensive effort led by
Bobby Brown's nine points and
Stephawn Brown's eight.
The Hornets trailed 6-5 after a Carl Cobbins basket at the 16:45 mark, but that would be the final points for Grambling for over five minutes as ASU went on an 11-0 run to push the lead out to 16-6 before a Demetri Wheeler basket stopped the run.
ASU shot 52 percent in the opening half and hit three of their seven three point attempts. The Hornets defense held GSU to 31 percent shooting in the opening half and forced 11 turnovers, turning those into 12 points.
The win was ASU's third consecutive win and moved the Hornets to 4-11 on the season and 2-0 in conference play. GSU falls to 0-11 and 0-2.
The Hornets will have a short night of rest as they will board the bus at 8 a.m. to make their first conference road trip of the season. The three-game road trip will begin with a 6 p.m. contest at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Sunday, Jan. 6.
