JACKSON, Miss. | Alabama State dropped their regular season finale to Jackson State, 82-70 at the Lee E. Williams AAC in Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) action Saturday night.

"We needed to play with the type of energy we had late for the entire game," Alabama State head coach Lewis Jackson said. "We played with some great intensity down the stretch, and we just need to build on that moving into the tournament. The regular season is over with, and now we have to focus on tournament play. If we can do what we did in the last few minutes, we will be successful moving forward."

Leon Daniels scored a career-high 21 points for the Hornets, including shooting 60 (6-of-10) percent from the floor and 66.7 (4-of-6) percent from beyond the arc. He knocked down all five of his free throws, and recorded three rebounds in the start.

"Leon responded really well to being in the starting lineup," Jackson said. "We didn't know if Gee would be able to go tonight, and he got here right before tip so we had Leon inserted into the lineup. He hit some big shots for us, and we need him to do that when the tournament starts next week."

Fausto Pichardo ended the night with 13 points, hitting all six of his shots on the night. He also grabbed four rebounds on the night for the Hornets in the loss.

"We need someone else besides Fox to step up in the post," Jackson said. "I thought he played hard down low tonight, and we just someone else down there with him. Getting AJ (Farrar) back will help us down low in the tournament."

The Hornets finished the night shooting 40.0 (22-of-55) percent from the floor and 28.6 (4-of-14) percent from beyond the arc, while also shooting 68.8 (22-of-32) percent from the free throw line. They also forced 11 turnovers, and turned the ball over just eight times.

Chris Howell and Jayveous McKinnis led Jackson State (13-18, 10-8 SWAC) with 19 points each in the win for the Tigers who finished the night shooing 47.3 (26-of-55) percent from the floor.

Alabama State and Jackson State will meet in the quarterfinal round of the SWAC Tournament Tuesday night, as the Hornets are the sixth seed and Jackson State the third. The game is scheduled to tip at 8 pm in Jackson.

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