Braves Drop Season-Opener at LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. – A hot-shooting LSU squad topped the Alcorn State University men's basketball program 99-59 in the season-opener for both teams Friday at the Maravich Center.
 
Senior A.J. Mosby led the Braves (0-1) with 15 points and three steals. Senior Reginal Johnson, the SWAC Preseason Player of the Year, finished with 12 points and five rebounds. Senior Avery Patterson and sophomore Tyler Carter ended with seven points apiece.
 
The Tigers (1-0) shot 36-59 (.610) from the field and a scorching 11-19 (.579) from three-point range. Alcorn was 23-59 (.390) from the field and 4-24 (.167) from beyond-the-arc.
 
LSU was propelled by Tremont Waters who scored a game-high 27 points on 9-for-13 shooting and 4-for-6 from long-range. He was one of four Tigers in double-figures along with Duop Reath with 11, Wayde Sims 11 and Brandon Sampson 10.
 
The Tigers came out of the gates hot and scored the first nine points of the game. Johnson got the Braves on the board with back-to-back lay-ups, and a jumper by sophomore Maurice Howard cut the deficit to 17-10 at the 13:02 mark.
 
A three-pointer at the top of the key by Carter made it an 18-13 game with 12:11 to go in the half.
 
The Braves trailed 35-27 after an old-fashion three-point play by junior Khari Jabriel Allen, but LSU answered with a big 13-0 run to jump out to a 48-27 edge with 1:40 left. Junior Dante Sterling hit a last-second jumper on a put-back, but the Tigers carried a 51-34 advantage heading into the break.
 
LSU again came out hot to start the second half and extended its lead to 63-34 with 16:05 left. Johnson scored six points in the second half, while Mosby, Sterling and Howard posted four points apiece.
 
The Braves mixed-and-matched their lineups, especially in the second half, and 12 different student-athletes logged minutes.
 
Alcorn will head to Creighton for 6 p.m. contest Sunday at the CenturyLink Center and to Northern Iowa for a 7 p.m. match Monday at the McLeod Center. The Braves start the year with five consecutive road games. Alcorn's home opener is on Wednesday, Nov. 22 when it hosts Yale from the Ivy League at 12:30 p.m.
 
NOTES
- Johnson has scored in double-figures in 31 of the last 32 games dating back to last season. He tallied his 50th career double-figure scoring game. Johnson is now 47 points away from reaching 1,000 in his career.
 
- Mosby notched his 18th career double-digit scoring game and fourth in his last five games dating back to last year. His three steals matched a career-high. Mosby played a game-high 32 minutes.
 
- Sophomore Devon Brewer swatted a career-high two blocks in 11 minutes off the bench.
 
- The Braves outscored the Tigers in second chance points 17-13. Alcorn pulled down 12 offensive rebounds compared to LSU's nine.
 
- Alcorn scored 30 points in the paint which was more than half of its scoring.
 
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