GRAMBLING, La. | Juan Reyna (San Antonio, Texas) had a career day and Alabama State held a double-digit lead for most of their road Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) game against Grambling State, pulling away for an 80-72 victory on Saturday.
Reyna, who missed just one shot on the night, finished with a career-high 25 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor (4-of-5 from beyond the arc) and was perfect from the free throw line (7-of-7) for the Hornets who led for all but 42 seconds on the day. The freshman was one of three players in double figures including
E.J. Clark (Dallas, Texas) with 13 points (with seven rebounds) and
Kenny Strawbridge (Rockford, Ill.) 11.
The game was tied at 0-all until
Gerald Liddell (Cibolo, Texas) hit a three-pointer with 19:18 to play in the game to break the tie and give Alabama State the lead that it would not relinquish. They started the game on an 11-2 run over the first five minutes and pushed the lead to 18 on a three-pointer from Reyna with 4:24 to play in the half. The Hornets withstood a 10-0 Grambling State (9-13, 7-3 SWAC) run to close the first half to take a 39-31 lead into the locker room.
The two teams struggled to start the second half before
Isaiah Range hit a layup with 18:59 to play in the contest to give Alabama State a 41-31 lead. The Hornets outscored Grambling State 20-10 over the next eight minutes to push the lead to 61-41, before back-to-back tip-ins by Clark and
Jordan O'Neal (Mobile, Ala.) pushed the lead to 25 at 66-41.
The lead stayed at double digits until a basket at the buzzer cut the final margin to eight.
Alabama State (6-16, 5-5 SWAC) finished the night shooting 46.4 (26-of-56) percent from the floor and 56.3 (9-of-16) from beyond the arc. They also shot 73.1 (19-of-26) percent from the free throw line, while assisting on 13 of the team's 26 baskets and grabbing 40 rebounds.
Shawndarius Cowart led Grambling State with 19 points and seven rebounds, while the Tigers were held to just 36.6 (26-of-71) percent shooting from the floor and 25.5 (8-of-31) percent from beyond the arc.
UP NEXT
Alabama State stays on the road and faces Southern on Monday night in Baton Rouge (La.) with tip scheduled for 7:30 pm.
QUOTES (from head coach Mo Williams)
"I thought we came out and competed from the jump ball, we talked about getting off to good starts which we haven't. I thought tonight we sustained our energy, our aggression, and our energy. We had some turnovers down the stretch, and this is our higher turnover total in a while and that is something we have to fix. We will fix that going into the next game."
"A big point of emphasis is not standing around the three-point line and settling, to attack the basket and if they help have a kick-out three. I thought we did a good job of attacking the paint and finishing."
"We were playing well on both sides of the ball. They picked up the pressure and it was more of us having turnover problems. It was our first time this season having a big lead and from experience we will be better in those situations. I thought we started playing not to lose instead of just playing on how we built the lead. That is something we can obviously learn from."
"I thought the guys did a good job of finding him and getting him the basketball. We get mad at him (Juan) for not shooting the ball and everyone wishes they had a coach that gets mad when you don't shoot it. I thought he was locked and loaded and ready to shoot when his opportunity was there. When they ran him off the line, he was able to get to the rim and make lay-ups."
"Just his (Liddell) presence alone. He played 27 minutes and five turnovers, but he hasn't played in a while. I thought he started the first half, and he was good, and he was a presence for us in the second half."
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