The Alabama State women's basketball team rallied but came up short in losing to Texas Southern 64-52 Monday night in a game that was closer than the score indicated.
Texas Southern (15-14, 14-2) scored 14 of the game's first 15 points and put Alabama State in a deficit they could not overcome. The Lady Hornets (9-20, 7-9) dominated the middle 20 minutes of the contest, outscoring TSU 31-21 and cut the margin to two points, but never led in the game.
“We came within two points, then turned the ball over about three or four times,” head coach
Freda Freeman-Jackson said. “You can not do that against a team like Texas Southern. We had them where we wanted them. We started off slowly, and they we tried to chip away, and we did. But still again, we didn't finish the game like we needed to.”
Paige and
Taila Arrington were the only Lady Hornets in double figures with 10 points each, while
Quentori Alford had eight points and led all players with nine rebounds.
Alabama State chipped away the deficit, outscoring the regular season champs 18-13 over the final 12 minutes of the first half. The Lady Hornets got the margin under 10 points twice, the last on a three-point play by
Kierra Paige as ASU trailed 27-18 at halftime.
After the team's traded baskets to open the second half, Alabama State went on a 9-0 run to cut the Texas Southern lead to 31-29 at the 13:31 mark on a three-pointer by Paige. It remained a two-possession game for most of the next six minutes. However, after a three-point play by Texas Southern's Morgan Simmons with less than eight minutes to play in the game gave the Lady Tigers a 41-33 advantage, Alabama State could get no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
“I'm proud that we battled back, but at the same time, we have to finish the game and we have to win,” Freeman-Jackson said. “At least the girls know going into the tournament that if we play fundamentality sound basketball and do the things we're supposed to do, we can beat Texas Southern on a given night.”
