BATON ROUGE, La. | Alabama State trailed by double digits late in the second half, but had a chance to win the game – or send it to overtime – in the finals seconds before falling to Southern 63-61 in Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) play at the F.G. Clark Activity Center Saturday evening.
 
Alabama State (3-15, 3-3 SWAC) trailed by 12 with 12:23 to play, falling behind 42-30 until Gene Davis hit a short jumper to ignite the Hornets offense and pull them within 10 with 11:04 to play. On their next possession, Rodney Simeon knocked down a contested three to pull the Hornets to within 42-35. Another three by Simeon with 9:56 to play pulled Alabama State to within four at 42-38.
 
After Southern back to seven at 47-40, the Hornets battled back again to pull within a pair at 47-45 on a pair of Fausto Pichardo free throws. After a couple of defensive stops, the Hornets had a chance to tie the game up but missed back-to-back three-pointers and Southern was able to push the lead to 53-46 with 5:46 to play in the contest.
 
Following the lead being pushed to eight, the Hornets battled back yet again to within four at 56-52 with 3:31 to play; however, Southern pushed the lead back to eight until a flurry of baskets in the waning moments put Alabama State in a chance to win.
 
Trailing by seven with 1:04 to play in the game, the Hornets started to foul and send Southern (7-13, 3-4 SWAC) to the free throw line. After a miss by Torrey Mayo, Reginald Gee came down and knocked down the first of back-to-back three-pointers to trim the lead to 59-55 with 50 seconds to play. After a missed free throw by Eddie Reese, Gee came down and hit the second of his three-pointers with 12 seconds to play to trim the deficit to 60-58.
 
Reese knocked down a pair of free throws with seven seconds remaining to push the Southern lead to 62-58, before Gee knocked a third consecutive three-pointer with just 3.2 seconds to play to pull to within a point at 62-61.
 
After Southern converted the front end of a two-shot foul, the Jaguars missed the second and Terrance LeFlore came down with the rebound. The senior raced down the court with the clock winding down, however, the shot came up short as the clock expired.
 
Gee led Alabama State with 20 points and nine rebounds, while Simeon added 11 for the Hornets who shot 34.5 (20-for-58) percent from the floor and 30.8 (8-of-26) percent from beyond the arc. They also shot 81.3 (13-of-16) percent from the free throw line.
 
Meanwhile, Reese led Southern with 14 points, while Sidney Umunde added 11. Jared Sam finished the day with nine points and 12 rebounds for the Jaguars, who shot 35.9 (23-of-64) percent from the floor and just 23.5 (4-of-17) percent from beyond the arc.
 
Alabama State returns to action Monday night on the road at Alcorn State, with tip set for 7:30 pm. The game will be carried on the Hornet Sports Network.
 
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