Box Score  
"I thought it was a great win for us because the last couple of times we have been here in the tournament we have made early exits and we really wanted to come out and play with some intensity defensively and execute offensively," Head Coach Lewis Jackson said.  "I thought the first half we were really struggling trying to score points because we were rushing and I thought we were a little tight."
 
"We took bad shots, we fumbled the ball, we had nine turnovers in the first half and they weren't even pressing.  However I though our defense was pretty good in the first half and we didn't give up that many points and we needed to tighten up on some things offensively."
 
"In the second half we got going and scored a few points and got some baskets to fall for us and our defense picked up where it left off at and we started to emerge and take the lead and we were able to hang on to it."
 
ASU (19-11) kept up a trend that has almost become a trademark as they have one bad shooting half and one good shooting half.  Today that good shooting half was the second half where the Hornets knocked down over 59 percent of their field goals.
 
"We had to let our bigs touch the ball around the basket and our guards were taking the bulk of the shots," Head Coach Lewis Jackson said.  "We need Maurice (Strong) and Luther (Page) to touch the ball around the basket as well as Tony Armstrong who did an outstanding job for us as well.  We started to do those things and we started to have some success."
 
That success translated into ASU's big men all having big contributions.  Along with Page's 12 points, Armstrong had 10 and Strong finished with eight points as the three combined to shoot 12-21 from the field and five for six at the free throw line.
 
"I talked with Luther before the game and told him he had been here and the last couple years we have been one and done and you need to step in there and show some leadership both verbally and physically out on the court, and tonight he did," Jackson said.
 
ASU actually had four players hit double digits as DeMarcus Robinson also came off the bench to score 10.  ASU finished the game shooting 46 percent from the field and hit 15 of their 19 free throws (79%).  ASU did struggle on their three point field goals only hitting one of nine.
 
Alcorn (11-18) struggled against the Hornets defense and finished the game shooting 31 percent from the field and only hit one of their 13 three point attempts (7.7%).
 
Marquis Vance led the Braves with 15 points and Alcorn's leading scorer LeAntwan Luckett finished with 12, which was over three points below his average.
 
Alcorn State held a slim 24-22 halftime lead as Luckett led the Braves in scoring with nine points as Alcorn shot 31 percent from the field.  The two-point difference came at the free throw line where Alcorn hit eight of 10 attempts.
 
The Hornets trailed by as many as 10 points (16-6) with 9:42 left in the first half and was struggling to get anything going on offense.  After falling behind ASU began to cut into the lead, which started on a three point field goal from DeAngelo Stewart.  It turned out to be ASU's only three point basket of the game.
Over the second part of the first half ASU outscored Alcorn 16-eight to get the lead down to two points after two free throws from Waters in the final minute of action.
 
"We came out and we were so uptight the guys were trying to hit the home run off the top of the game and we were just trying to get them to settle down," Jackson said.  "We were playing decent defense, we were rebounding the ball pretty well, but offensively we were stinking things up, because we weren't making the extra pass, we were taking quick shots and we were not getting the ball inside at all."

Waters led ASU with seven first-half points while Armstrong added six.  ASU shot 32 percent from the field and hit five of their seven free throws
 
ASU will now move on to face the hottest team in the conference in Texas Southern.  The Tigers defeated Grambling State 79-54 in their quarterfinal game and have won seven consecutive games and eight of their last nine.
 
ASU was able to defeat TSU in Montgomery 79-73(Feb. 3) in overtime, and TSU returned the favor defeating ASU 86-66 (March 1) in Houston.
 
"We certainly have to play better defense than we did when we were at their place," Jackson said.  "They like to get up and down the floor and we have to try and cut the game in half and make them play some halfcourt.  They do a good job of executing in the halfcourt and we have to get up into them and defend them hard and be physical with them because that is the way they are going to play."