MONTGOMERY, Ala. | Alabama State led wire-to-wire snapping a three-game losing streak with a 61-46 victory over Mississippi Valley State in Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome on Monday night.
 
TJ Madlock led Alabama State (12-14, 7-6 SWAC) with a game-high 21 points. He also added five rebounds and three assists, while Amarr Knox came off the bench to add 15 points and recorded a career-high six steals.
 
Ubong Okon finished with eight points and seven rebounds for the Hornets who shot 36.8 (21-of-57) percent from the floor and 19.0 (4-of-21) percent from beyond the arc. They also shot 65.2 (15-of-23) percent from the free throw line and forced 19 Mississippi Valley State (0-26, 0-13 SWAC) turnovers.
 
Rayquan Brown led the Delta Devils with 16 points and seven rebounds.
 
The Hornets are currently tied for sixth with Bethune-Cookman and Alabama A&M, one game ahead of UAPB and just one game back third with five conference games remaining.
 
How It Happened

• Alabama State jumped out to a 14-3 lead over the first nine minutes shooting 50 percent from the floor and holding Mississippi Valley State to just 12.5 shooting over that same span. They also forced seven turnovers in that same span.
• The Delta Devils were able to trim the deficit to single digits with under three minutes to play before Madlock hit a pair of free throws to push it back to double digits at 28-18, however, Mississippi Valley State trimmed the deficit to 30-26 with 44.1 seconds to play in the half.
• Alabama State finished the first half shooting 40.0 (10-of-25) percent from the floor and just 12.5 (1-of-8) percent from beyond the arc. They also shot 76.9 (10-of-13) percent from the free throw line while forcing 12 Delta Devil turnovers.
• After starting the game 1-for-10 from the floor, Mississippi Valley State shot 32.0 (8-of-25) percent from the floor in the first half. They also shot 40.0 (4-of-10) from beyond the arc and hit all six of its free throws.
• The Delta Devils opened the second on a 5-2 run to trim the deficit to two at 33-31 before Alabama State was able to push the lead to 38-31 on a pair of Madlock free throws with 15:45 to play in the game. However, the Delta Devils were able to climb back to within four at 41-37 before a timeout with 11:53 to play in the game.
• From that point, Alabama State went on an 8-0 run to open the game up with 9:10 remaining and grabbed a 49-37 lead.
• The Hornets shot 34.4 (11-of-32) percent from the floor in the second half and 23.1 (3-of-13) from beyond the arc. They also shot 50 (5-of-10) percent from the free throw line. Meanwhile, Mississippi Valley State shot 23.1 (6-of-26) percent from the floor and just 14.3 (1-of-7) percent from beyond the arc in the second half.

Alabama State Notes

• The 26 points scored in the first half by Mississippi Valley State is the third-fewest allowed this season in the first half. The Hornets held Merrimack (Nov. 25) and Mississippi Valley State (Jan. 6) to fewer than 25 points in each of those games.
• Knox broke his career-high in steals in the first half with four, topping his previous mark of three set against Southern (2/12/24). His six set a new season-high for the Hornets this year topping the five set by Madlock against Oglethorpe (11/14/23).
• Micah Octave ran his streak of steals to 24 out of 26 games with a second-half steal.
• Madlock scored in double figures for the 22nd time this season – the most on the team – and Knox for the eighth time.

Quotable from head coach Tony Madlock
Opening statement…
"Great win. You hate to say must-win in February, but it was a must-win game after we didn't play well on Saturday. To come back against Mississippi Valley who hasn't won a game all year, but they have been playing everyone tight. Those games scare you death especially after we have lost three games in a row, I was really happy and proud of my team. We fought, and we had a good start which was important. We were able to control the game."
 
AK stepped up big tonight…
"He is a scorer by nature, he is wiry. He is always in the passing lanes, sometimes he gambles when he shouldn't gamble but again you got to let him be him."
 
You have to be happy with the effort…
"They fought. Yesterday we talked and met. Coach Penny (Lucas-White) came in and talked to our team yesterday. We are going to do whatever to make sure our guys are right mentally and physically. We are going to do whatever we have to do to help them. They all responded and were locked in to coach Penny and the game plan. We came in and had a great shootaround and came ready to play."
 
Up Next
Alabama State hits the road for its next three games beginning with a two-game swing in the state of Florida. The Hornets will face Florida A&M in Tallahassee (Fla.) at 4 pm (ET) on Saturday, Feb. 24.
 
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