BIRMINGHAM, Ala. | Ayana Emmanuel and Shmya Ward combined for 60 points for No. 2 seed Alabama State as the Lady Hornets advanced to the semifinals of the Cricket Wireless Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Tournament with an 85-69 victory over Texas Southern Wednesday morning.

Emmanuel finished the day with a career-high 32 points as she connected on 11-of-18 shots from the floor and hit five three-pointers. She was able to connect on back-to-back three-pointers in the first quarter, with the latter giving her 1,000 career points as a Lady Hornet. Meanwhile, Ward finished the day with a career-high 28 points and finished with a double-double as she recorded 12 rebounds.

Both teams started slowly for the third consecutive meeting until Alabama State was able to pull away with a small run in the second quarter to grab an 11-point halftime lead (35-24). The Lady Hornets were able to open the lead to 20 points late in the third quarter and actually grabbed their biggest lead of the game at 62-38 with 9:09 remaining in the contest. However, Texas Southern went on a 13-0 run to trim the lead to 11 and got to within eight until Alabama State pulled away late for the win.

Alabama State was able to put distance between themselves and Texas Southern at the free throw line.

The Lady Hornets finished the day shooting 87.1 (27-for-31) percent from line on the game but connected on their first 21 free throws before a miss with 5:06 remaining in the game. Ward led the effort at the line for Alabama State, finishing 10-for-10 on the day.

Alabama State returns to action Friday in the semifinals against either No. 3 seed Southern or No. 6 seed Alcorn State with tip set for 11 am and can be seen on ESPN3. The game will also be carried by the Hornet Sports Network.

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