"A tough game and extremely physical game," Head Coach Lewis Jackson said.  "We got off to a slow start and they pushed us around.  They got every shot they wanted offensively and defensively they were not letting us get anything going.  We told our guys if we don't step it up we are going to get embarrassed here at home."
 
"They got the lead up to 15 or so points and we started playing better late in the first half and got some things going.  We competed and played more physical and got a couple of shots to fall.  We came out in the second half and picked up where we left off at and just played a great second half."
 
The Hornets found themselves down by 17 (36-19) after two free throws from Southern's Frank Snow.  Over the final 3:42 the Hornets scored seven points to cut the lead down to 10 at halftime.
 
ASU (11-5/7-0 SWAC) continued to cut into the Jags lead scoring the first seven points of the second half to cut the lead to 36-33 before a Snow layup stopped the Hornets 14-0 run.  That did not stop ASU as they cut the lead to 40-39 after a Waters free throw with 15:46 left.
 
Southern (9-13/6-2 SWAC) pushed the lead back out to 47-41 with 11 minutes left before the Hornets began to cut back into the lead, finally taking their first lead at 48-47 after a three point play from Chidoze Omile.  It was ASU's first lead of the game.
 
The two teams would battle back and forth before two Waters free throws gave ASU a 56-53 lead with three minutes left.  Neither team could do much after that, but Adrian Rodgers three-point field goal banked in with less than a minute to go to send the game into overtime.
 
In the extra five minutes ASU outscored Southern 7-3 with Wendell Lewis' layup with 1:37 left putting ASU up 61-59 and Waters finished the scoring with his final two free throws.
 
This was a physical battle as Southern finished the game shooting 37 percent from the field and ASU only managing 33 percent.  The difference was ASU's ability to outrebound the visitors 54-40 with 21 of those coming on the offensive end and leading to 21 second chance points.
 
Waters scored a team-high 18 points and Lewis collected a double-double for ASU finishing with 15 points and 10 rebounds.  Bobby Brown, Maurice Strong and Waters all collected eight rebounds.
 
Rodgers was the only Southern player to hit double digits as he finished with a game-high 21 points.  Tre Lynch came off the bench to contribute nine points in a losing cause.
 
The Hornets defense was the key, as Southern had 36 points with 3:42 left in the first half and only scored 23 points the final 28+ minutes of the game.
 
"We talked about guys stepping up, our wing guys really had to step up and do a good job on their scorers because they're good off the dribble and the shoot the three-ball well," Jackson said.  "I thought D-Rob (Robinson), Bobby (Brown), all our wing guys, Chidoze, Jamel as well as (Brandon) Graham, those guys really did a good job of getting into their wing guys and made it tough for them to get good, clean looks at the basket."
 
"Wendell came up big hitting the boards finishing with a double-double and everybody just competed.  Everyone that got in the game competed and the guys felt like they could win the ball game and when they start feeling like that, they start playing hard and our defense was big in the second half."
 
The Hornets suffered through a cold-shooting first half on their way to trailing 36-26 at halftime.  Lewis led the Hornets with seven points and Robinson and Page contributed with six.  The Hornets shot 38 percent from the field and again struggled from the free throw line only hitting three of nine.
 
Rodgers scored 12 first-half points and Hopkins came off the bench to score six while the Jaguars shot 44 percent from the field.  They cooled off toward the end of the first half as they opened the game knocking down five of their first six shots.
 
The Hornets will now take their annual trip to Texas for the next two road games.  That trip begins with the Hornets game at Texas Southern Saturday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m.