JACKSONVILLE, Ala. –
Jamel Waters scored 16 points, and the Alabama State men's basketball team was strong at the free-throw line to win at Jacksonville State 84-73 Saturday night at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
In a contest that saw 53 fouls called, the Hornets (2-2) made them count, making 32-of-39 at the charity stripe. Buoyed by its performance at the line, Alabama State led most of the game, trailing just three times.
"I thought the guys came out tonight and stuck to the game plan," Hornets' men's basketball coach
Lewis Jackson said of his team, whose largest deficit was just two points at the beginning of the game. "We played with a lot of poise and executed the offense really well. We did a really good job on defense for the better part of the first half."
Alabama State got off to blistering start from the field, making eight of 10 shots in the first eight-plus minutes of the game. The Hornets took their largest lead at 16 points, doubling up the Gamecocks at 32-16 after a pair of free throws by Waters with 8:44 to play in the first half.
Jacksonville State (1-3) chipped away at the deficit, outscoring Alabama State 23-12 over the remainder of the half, as the Hornets lead just 44-43 at halftime.
The lead changed hands four times in the first two minutes of the second half before the Hornets regained the lead for good on a layup by
Brandon Graham to give the Hornets a 47-46 lead with just over 18 minutes remaining. After the final tie of the game at 54-all with 14:21 to play, Alabama State went on a 14-4 run to push the margin to 10. Terrence LeFlore hit back-to-back three-pointers at the end of the run to give the Hornets a 68-58 lead with just under 10 minutes remaining. Jacksonville State got no closer than five points the rest of the way.
Alabama State shot better than 52 percent from the field in the second half (11-of-21), and 16-of-21 at the free-throw line in the final 20 minutes. Waters and
DeMarcus Robinson, who scored 15 points, each went 8-of-8 at the line.
Luther Page added 11 points for the Hornets, who shot 50 percent from the field in the game (24-of-48).
"We knew like any good team, they would make a run," Jackson said of Jacksonville State. "We had the big lead, and they cut it to one. We told the guys at halftime we could win by one. Let's go out and keep executing the way we did early on. The biggest thing we did was make free throws. It was a great road win for us. We needed this to give us great momentum going into Monday night's home game (at 7 p.m.) against a great Chicago State team."
