MONTGOMERY, Ala. | Alabama State trailed by one at the break but used a big run at the beginning of the second half to pull away from Tuskegee for a 91-65 victory at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome on Monday night.
Alabama State (2-5) shot 42.9 (12-of-28) percent from the second half but found themselves trailing to the Golden Tigers after a pair of free throws with just 23 seconds left before half. Alabama State was unable to convert a pair of free throws with under a second to play and went into the locker room down 37-36.
The second half was a different story as the Hornets came out on a 19-2 run that started with a pair of three-pointers from freshman
Juan Reyna (San Antonio, Texas) to go up 42-37 with 19 minutes to play in the game. After a Tuskegee basket cut the lead to 44-39, the Hornets scored 11 consecutive points to push the lead to 55-39 with 15:54 to play. The lead continued to grow throughout the second half growing to as many as 30 with just 1:35 to play in the game.
Christian McCray (Las Vegas, Nev.) led Alabama State with 15 points, pacing three players in double figures. He finished the night shooting 7-of-9 from the floor, while
Kevion Stewart (Memphis, Tenn.) and Reyna each finished with 10. Meanwhile
, DJ Jackson (San Bernardino, Calif.) finished with five points, nine rebounds, and five assists on the night for the Hornets who finished shooting 53.4 (31-of-58) percent from the floor.
They also finished the night shooting 42.2 (7-of-17) percent from beyond the arc and 57.9 (22-of-38) percent from the free throw line. They also outrebounded the Golden Tigers 40-30, while turning the ball over just 14 times.
UP NEXT
Alabama State returns to action on Sunday afternoon against North Alabama at home. The game tips at 3:30 pm and is part of a doubleheader with the women's program. Admission is $5.
QUOTES from head coach Mo Williams
"Tale of two halves. I thought Tuskegee the first half brought the fight, I thought they wanted it more and I challenged my guys at halftime. Do you really want it? They came out and responded, I couldn't be prouder of those guys from half one to half two."
"When you are at home you want to go on runs and that was huge. That is what gave us issues in the first half, it was a back-and-forth game, and we could never go on runs to get the crowd involved. I thought the 19-2 run got the crowd going and they didn't stop. That is a great feeling to have a home crowd that is behind you like that and that bothered the other team. You can't help but hear it, and we hear it and love it. We just have to continue to grow."
"We are doing it game by game; we talk about it every day. Some of those were at the end of the game, so I am going to realistically say 11 or 12. I think if we can stay within those numbers and get attempts up, which tonight we had more than the opponent for the first time this season. We've got to grow from it."
"What I am most proud of is that every guy that came in, they came out and competed. You didn't see a drop off in energy, effort, and enthusiasm and it carried over from our guys that play a lot that were on the bench cheering them on. They did a lot of things to uplift their teammates on the floor."
"It is huge, we have tomorrow and Wednesday off. We've got two days off; I think everybody deserves it. From a coaching standpoint we deserve it, we have been just bouncing from game to game and scout to scout. It just stacks up. We need this moment to enjoy our family, enjoy each other and get back to work on Thanksgiving."
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