Alabama State women's basketball team travels to Itta Bena, Miss. for a SWAC matchup with the Devilettes of Miss. Valley State at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday night at the HPER Complex.
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Nakiya Smith continues to pace the Lady Hornets in scoring 10.6 points per game. She had 12 points in the loss to UAPB. Defensively Quentroi Alford continues to hold the crown as she has 23 blocks on the season, and 95 rebounds averaging 9.5 rebounds per contest. She is also second on the team in scoring 10.2 points per game.
In the last three conference games, Alford has been the offensive leader for the Lady Hornets. The junior forward is averaging 11.0 points per game. Alford is shooting 56 percent from the field in conference games.
Mississippi Valley holds a 36-31 lead in the series. The teams split the regular season matchups last season, and the Devilettes were crowned the Regular Season Champs and lost in the final Championship round to Prairie View.
Mississippi Valley comes into Tuesday's game as one of the league's top defensive rebounding team. They are averaging 25.4 rebounds per contest, while Alabama State is atop of the league in offensive rebounding and third in defensive rebounds, averaging 16.5 offensive rebounds per game and 24.4 defensively.
Alia Franks is the only player in double figures for Miss. Valley State. Franks is at 11.8 points per game and is their leading rebounder with 5.5 per contest.
“When you come to the “Valley”, said Head Coach
Freda Freeman-Jackson. “The crowd really gets involved and we are going to have to make sure that our girls stay focused on what we are trying to do and try to ignore the crowd. Valley is coming off as last year's Regular Season Champs and is accustomed to winning. What we are going to have to do is forget about the game on Sunday and make sure that we focus on the game at hand."
“I feel that the girls are well prepared and we worked hard and the girls were really in tuned with what we are trying to do on the offensive as well as the defensive end of the court. We just have to make plays and stops when we need to. Our main focus on tomorrow is running our offense. We tweaked some things a little bit to focus on getting the ball inside. We adjusted our offense so that we can get the ball to our big dog. We also have to get the ball in the hands of our go to players and once we get that going I think that we will be a better team.”
GO HORNETS
