MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alabama State University women's basketball will begin defense of their Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship Tuesday evening, hosting the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome.
Tip is set for 5:30 pm, and can be seen on the Hornet Sports Network. Tickets are available for the contest at $15 for general admission and $5 for students.
Alabama State (13-15), the two-time defending conference champion, will face a UAPB team that they split with in the regular season. The Lady Hornets visited Arkansas in January and came away with a 74-62 victory; while UAPB came to Montgomery and escaped with a 52-51 victory over Alabama State on a last second free throw.
In the last contest, one of just three home games that the Lady Hornets dropped this season,
Daniele Ewert and
Britney Wright led Alabama State each with 13 points in the loss, with Wright adding eight rebounds. Alabama State shot just 35.4 (17-of-48) percent from the floor, including 31.8 (7-of-22) percent from beyond the arc in the loss. The Lady Hornets also shot just 43.5 (10-of-23) percent from the free throw line.
Wright, the SWAC Player of the Year, averaged a league-leading 18.4 points per game during the regular season and grabbed 7.4 rebounds per game for the Lady Hornets. Her average places her in the top 50 in the country, landing at 45th overall. The senior is in the top 20 in the country in free throws made (20th) with 143 and free throws attempted (27th) with 179. The senior leads the conference in free throw shooting (.802), is fourth in rebounding in the conference, seventh in field goal percentage (.439), eighth in minutes played (32.8), 12th in three-point field goal percentage (.278) and 13th in three-point field goals made (1.1).
In conference play, Wright averaged 21.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per game in 18 contests, while shooting 45.3 (126-of-278) from the floor. She also shot 31.3 (21-of-67) percent from beyond the arc and 79.7 (118-of-148) from the free throw line in helping Alabama State to the three seed for the upcoming SWAC Championship Tournament.
Wright has scored in double figures 24 times this season, including the last 17 contests. The only time Wright has been held out of double digits in conference play came on January 2 against Grambling, and since that point has averaged 22.5 points per game. The senior has scored 20-plus points 15 times, and went over 30 three times this season – including setting a career-high with 35 against Southern, and matching it against Prairie View A&M. She also recorded five double-doubles on the year for the Lady Hornets.
Ewert is the second-leading scorer on this year's team at 9.6 points and 4.3 rebounds, and is one of the leading scorers in the conference of those players who come off the bench. Senior
Danielle Clark has responded by averaging 18.5 points over the last two games, including knocking down 11 three-pointers in the last two games. The Lady Hornets have nine players on this year's roster who have played one at least one of the two championship teams since 2014.
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