The Alabama State University men's basketball team will host Western Illinois Monday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome. It is ASU's first game since a Dec. 7 loss at Troy. It is only the second game for the Hornets since Nov. 18, a home win over Chicago State.
Western Illinois has won three consecutive games entering the game with ASU. They have a 4-4 record and are led in scoring by Garret Covington who averages 12.7 points per game. Adam Link averages 10.8 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game.
Michael Ocherobia leads the team averaging six rebounds per game and is shooting 63 percent from the field while averaging over eight points per game.
"Western Illinois is a good team and we have our work cut out," Head Coach
Lewis Jackson said. "They have gotten on a roll with three straight wins and are playing with a lot of confidence."
"Their defense is outstanding. They are only allowing 54 points per game and their opponents are only shooting 38 percent against them. Our offense has to be patient and work for the open shots."
ASU has a 3-3 record entering the game. The loss at Troy stopped the Hornets three-game winning streak.
Jamel Waters leads ASU in scoring (16.0), assists (5.8) and steals (1.8). He has been doing it all early in the season for ASU and is also shooting 49 percent from the field, 39 percent from beyond the three point line and 77 percent from the free throw line.
DeMarcus Robinson has started to come along and enters the game averaging 13.7 points per game. He leads ASU at the free throw line shooting 87 percent.
Luther Page leads ASU in rebounding averaging 5.7 per game.
Bobby Brown has supplied ASU with some excellent play coming off the bench. He is shooting 50 percent from the field while averaging nine points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
ASU enters the game averaging 73.7 points per game, but it is defensively where ASU has been working on the most. The opposition is averaging 76 points per game and ASU's last opponent Troy scored 85.
"We just can't afford to give up 85 points per game," Jackson said. "We have better players than that and we are working on getting them to play better defense. We are not limiting our work to man defense we have to get better in our zone work as well."
"Western shoots over 47 percent from the field as a team and has two players who shoot over 60 percent. We have got to work on not giving up open looks at the basket and then we have to do a better job of rebounding missed shots. I know we can play better defense we just have to work harder."
Live in-game stats will be updated and can be watched at bamastatesports.com.
-Hornets-
