"This is a tough way to begin the second half of the conference season," Head Coach Lewis Jackson said. "Valley has always been a tough place to play and they are a team that has gotten better every time out and now they are playing better than they have all season."

The Hornets (13-7) enter the road trip winners of six of its past seven games and nine of its last 11. Both of those losses have come on the road in conference action at Jackson State (68-70) on a 30+ foot buzzer beater and at league leading Southern (55-68).

With five of the nine conference games left on the schedule on the road, the Hornets know they need to win as many road games as possible in order to continue to stay near the top of the conference standings.

"We have won two of the four road conference games so far this season," Jackson said. "We want to win every one of them, but you don't want to come back home without a win so we have got to show a lot of improvement and try to get as many of these games as we can. There are no easy wins in this conference and that is especially true on the road so we have to get as many of these games as we can if we expect to compete for a conference championship."

The Hornets continue to be led by the top three in scoring; Jamel Waters (14.1), DeMarcus Robinson (12.1) and Bobby Brown (10.5).

Maurice Strong is the team's leading rebounder at 6.6 boards per game with Luther Page just behind at 5.6. Waters continues to be one of the best all-around guards in the conference as he leads the SWAC in assists at 6.1 per game and is third in steals averaging 1.9.

Even with the offense the Hornets have produced in averaging 71.7 points per game, it has been their defense that has continued to drive the team to victories, especially since the Hornets have struggled from the field at times during the season scoring.

"We are never satisfied with our defense," Jackson said. "There have been times when I thought we were playing defense pretty good, but then we would fall back into some of our old mistakes like not covering the lanes and losing shooters. So we make enough mistakes to know we have to continually work on playing better defense."

Defense is exactly what they will need to fall back on against Mississippi Valley State as the Delta Devils are the SWAC's second leading scoring team at 72.7 points per game. They have three players averaging in double digits led by Anthony McDonald's 12.9 points per game. DeAngelo Priar (10.5) and James Currington (10.5) also average double digits with Currington leading the team in rebounds at 6.6 per game.

MVSU (8-14/4-5 SWAC) is a totally different team than the one the Hornets defeated 93-62 in Montgomery back on Jan. 11. MVSU is tied for the conference's current longest winning streak at three games. One of its conference wins this season has been a 72-64 win over Southern, giving the Jags their only conference loss of the season to date.

This season MVSU has played all of their home games in Greenwood, Miss., at the Leflore County Civic Center due to construction going on at their home facility. The move has not bothered the Delta Devils as they own a 5-1 record this season at the Center.

"Valley has shown how improved they are since the first time we played them," Jackson said. "To be the only team that has handed Southern a conference loss will show you that. They love to get up and down the court and shoot the basketball. Once again we have to identify their scorers and get back on defense. Then we have to limit them to one shot and not give them a lot of second chances. Again, this is going to be how well our defense plays as to whether we have a chance to win or not."