JACKSON, Miss. | Basketball season is divided into three seasons – preseason (non-conference), conference and postseason. The book has been closed on the first two portions of the first two and all of the attention is now on the postseason.
An automatic bid to the "Big Dance" is on the line this week in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) with eight teams hitting the floor for the quarterfinal round, and Alabama State is one of those eight. The sixth-seeded Hornets will face third-seeded Jackson State in the opening round of the tournament, a rematch of a contest just played at the Lee E. Williams AAC Saturday night.
Game time is set for 8 pm, and will follow the women's contest. Tickets are still available for the contest by
clicking here.
Alabama State (11-18, 9-9 SWAC) finished one game back of Jackson State in the regular season standings, with the Tigers holding the tiebreaker over Grambling State and UAPB to earn the third seed. The two teams split the season series, each winning on their home floor – Alabama State by two in Montgomery and a 12-point win by Jackson State on Saturday (82-70).
The two teams have split the last 10 meetings, each winning five times, with the Hornets last winning in Jackson back in 2015. The longest streak over the last 10 games belongs to Jackson State, who swept the season series back in 2017 and won the first meeting in 2018. The Hornets swept the season series in 2015.
Alabama State is looking for their first tournament win since the 2015 tournament in which they defeated Mississippi Valley State 93-81 in the opening round. They have played the eventual tournament champion Texas Southern in each of the last two years.
The Hornets are averaging 67.7 points per game on the season, while shooting 40.4 (668-of-1653) percent from the floor and 32.2 (204-of-634) percent from beyond the arc.
Reginald Gee leads the Hornets in scoring at 13.6 points per game, while
Jacoby Ross is at 13.0 points per game.
Leon Daniels, who has scored in double figures in seven of the last eight games, is averaging 9.0 points per game for Alabama State.
The winner of the game on Tuesday advances to SWAC semifinals at Bill Harris Arena Friday evening, facing the winner of second-seeded Texas Southern and seventh-seeded Southern.
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