BATON ROUGE, La. | Alabama State earned a tough 61-58 win over Southern to split their road trip on Monday evening inside the F.G. Clark Activity Center in a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) game.
 
After a low scoring opening quarter, Alabama State (8-12, 7-4 SWAC) responded in the second sparked by a 9-2 run starting with an inside score and three-pointer from Farrah Pearson (Hazel Green, Ala.) along with scores from Shmya Ward (Memphis, Tenn.) and free throws from Ayana Emmanuel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) to put the score at 25-21. However, Southern took a 33-25 lead into halftime.
 
Both teams shot over 40 percent from the field and 70 percent from the free throw line in the half, while Southern outscored Alabama State 16-12 in the paint.
 
The Hornets continued to claw back in the third quarter, outscoring the Jaguars 7-3 over the first five minutes of play. After the media timeout, turnovers hurt Alabama State as they turned the ball over on two consecutive possessions, resulting in four points for the Jaguars.
 
After a media timeout, Alabama State responded with another run, this time an 8-1 run, cutting the deficit to just one after a three-pointer from Emmanuel off an assist from Ward. The Hornets went on to tie the ball game at 41-41 with just over a minute to play yet ended the quarter trailing 42-41.
 
The two teams battled in a tight fourth, exchanging the lead five different times along with having a tie score four times in the quarter. The Hornets took their first lead of the game (43-42) at the 8:43 mark by scoring first in the quarter, however found themselves trailing by six a minute later after a Jaguar run.
 
The Hornets took the lead once again with just over three and a half minutes to play after a pair of free throws from Emmanuel and took their final lead after a pull up jumper from Jayla Crawford (Birmingham, Ala.) who scored all eight of her points in the fourth quarter.
 
Alabama State finished the game shooting 42.2 (19-of-45) percent from the floor, 38.5 (5-of-13) percent from three and 66.7 (18-of-27) percent from the free throw line, while the Jaguars shot 38.6 (22-of-57) percent from the field, 25 (2-of-8) percent from three and 52.2 (12-of-23) percent from the charity stripe.
 
The Hornets finished with a pair of scorers in double figures on the day, led by Ward with 18 points and six rebounds, followed by Emmanuel who added 15 points and a season-high eight rebounds along with three assists on the evening.

UP NEXT
Alabama State will return to Montgomery this weekend as they host Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday, February 7. Tip-off for the doubleheader is set for 2 pm.
 
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