RUSTON, La. – Junior
Reginal Johnson poured in a career-high 25 points to headline the Alcorn State University men's basketball program in its 98-65 defeat at Louisiana Tech on Monday at the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court.
Johnson, from Monroe, Louisiana, drained a career-high nine field goals for the Braves (2-6) on 16 attempts. He was a perfect three-for-three from long-range and four-for-five from the free throw line.
Johnson scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half. He also pulled down seven rebounds in the contest.
Also in double-figures, senior
Denzel Dulin tallied 12 points on 6-of-12 shooting, while fellow senior
Marquis Vance neared a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds.
LA Tech (5-3) was on fire the entire game. It shot .557 (34-61) from the field and .619 (13-21) from three-point range including a scorching 8-11 from beyond-the-arc in the first half.
The Bulldogs had three players score 20 points including Erik McCree, Jacobi Boykins and Derric Jean. Omar Sherman and Jy'lan Washington scored 13 and 10 points, respectively. McCree completed his double-double with 11 rebounds.
LA Tech got ahead early after scoring the first 11 points of the game. The Braves cut the deficit to 20-14 at the 12:07 mark after a four-point play by Vance when he nailed a three-pointer, drew a foul and converted the free throw. Though, the Bulldogs responded with an 8-0 spurt to push their lead back up to 31-14 with 9:41 left.
After a jumper by Johnson with 1:37 to go, LA Tech ended the first half on a 7-0 run to go into the break on top 47-22.
Alcorn cut the lead to 52-33 with 16:53 remaining in the second half after a lay-up by Dulin, but could not get any closer.
The Braves will have almost two weeks off before taking on Georgia Tech at 1 p.m. (CT) on Sunday, Dec. 18.
NOTES
- The Braves played their fourth of a six-game road stretch. Alcorn has a 30-day layover between home games. During the six-game road swing, the Braves will play games in four different time zones (pacific, mountain, central and eastern time).
- Alcorn entered the game leading the SWAC in assist:turnover ratio (0.9) and it dished out 18 assists with 14 turnovers in the game.
- Johnson has increased his scoring during every game of the road trip. He started it off with 14 points at Colorado State and followed it up with 15 at San Francisco, 17 at Cal and 25 tonight. His 25 points surpassed his previous career-best of 22 set at Grambling State on March 10, 2015. It was the third time in his career that he made a trio of three-pointers in a single game.
- It marked the seventh consecutive double-figure scoring game for Johnson and the 26th of his career. Johnson now leads the team with 14.6 points per game.
- Johnson has grabbed at least five rebounds in every game this year. He averages a team-high 6.8 rebounds per contest on the season.
- Vance reached double-digits in scoring for the eighth time in the last nine games dating back to last year. It was his 57th career double-figure scoring game. Vance entered the contest ranked second in the league in blocks (1.1 bpg) and swatted away a pair.
- Dulin scored in double-figures for the fourth time this year.
- Junior
A.J. Mosby came into the affair ranked top-five in the league in steals (1.7 spg) and will increase his average after recording three steals.
- The Braves entered the contest ranked second in the SWAC in blocks (4.1 bpg) and were right on par with four blocks in the game.
- Alcorn shot a season-high .833 (10-12) from the free throw line.
- The Braves played without starting center senior
DeAndre Davis for the sixth consecutive game due to a hand injury. Davis finished third in the SWAC in both field goal percentage (.584) and offensive rebounding (2.5 orpg) last season.
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