BATON ROUGE, La. – The Alabama State University men's basketball team nearly rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit on Monday night, but comeback attempt fell just short as the Hornets fell to Southern, 79-73, in a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) game at the Minidome.

"It was another tough loss," Alabama State head coach Lewis Jackson said. "We're just not playing consistently for 40 minutes and it seems like our guys are waiting until we find ourselves in a hole until we decide we want to start playing. I thought we came out early and played with some energy. We went into halftime down eight and come out for the second half and go down 18 and push the game. We started playing with some energy and effort and it becomes a two-point ballgame. We still can't close things out. We had missed opportunities and missed rebounds. We've got to learn to play defense without fouling."
 
Tony Armstrong led four Alabama State players in double figures with 15 points, four rebounds and one assist. Rodney Simeon and Terrance LeFlore each had 14 points, while Amir Warnock finished with 11 points and seven rebounds as the Hornets shot 35.5 percent (27-of-76) and 60 percent (19-of-24) from the free-throw line.
 
With the score tied at 10 in the opening half, Southern used a 9-1 run, capped a Christopher Thomas layup to give the Jaguars a 21-11 advantage with 11:14 left.
 
The Hornets battled back and cut the deficit to 26-19 after an Amir Warnock putback with 7:21 remaining in the first half. But Southern pushed the advantage back to double digits at 39-24 after a Shawn Prudhomme jumper with 3:38 left.
 
Alabama State held Southern without a field goal for the final 3:40 of the first half as the Hornets got baskets by LeFlore, Corvon Butler and Simeon to trim the margin to 39-31 at the break.
 
The Jaguars opened the second half on a 12-2 run and built an 18-point lead, 53-35, after a Jared Sam jumper with 15:36 remaining. However, Alabama State used a 21-10 run to trim the margin to 61-54 after a LeFlore layup with 10:03 left.
 
Southern stretch the lead to as many as 10 points over the next six minutes, but Alabama State kept the game close and trailed 70-63 with 3:58 remaining.
 
The Hornets got a layup and foul shot by Simeon to trim the margin to 73-68 and after a bucket by the Jaguars, Warnock scored on a putback to get the Southern lead at five (75-70). After a turnover by Southern, Armstrong scored on a putback layup and sank a foul shot to cut the deficit to 75-73 with 56 seconds remaining.
 
That would be as close as the Hornets would get as Trelun Banks sank two shots at the free-throw line and Prudhomme scored on a layup to seal the victory.
 
Thomas paced the Southern offense with 19 points and seven rebounds. Prudhomme added 18 points and five boards and Sam chipped in with 16 points and seven rebounds as the Jaguars shot 48.3 percent (28-of-58) from the floor and 65.4 percent (17-of-26) from the foul line.
 
Alabama State returns to action at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb 25 at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome against Texas Southern. In the previous matchup this season, the Hornets had three players in double figures, but it wasn't enough in a 70-68 road loss on Jan. 28.
 
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