WACO, Texas – Despite a 78-61 loss at 24th-ranked Baylor on Friday evening, the Alcorn State University basketball program kept the score even in the second half 36-36 at the Ferrell Center.
In the second half, the Braves (0-4) shot 15-31 (.484) from the field and limited the Bears (3-0) to a 11-29 (.379) mark including 3-16 (.188) from beyond-the-arc.
Alcorn ended the game on an 8-1 run which included jumpers by seniors
A.J. Mosby and
Juwan Henderson, and a three-pointer by senior
Avery Patterson. The Bears only made one field goal in the final five minutes of the game.
The Braves outscored Baylor 16-14 in points in the paint and 16-11 in points off the bench in the second half.
Senior
Reginal Johnson led the Braves with 14 points on 6-10 (.600) shooting and a couple of three-pointers. Also in double-figures, junior
Dante Sterling set his career-high at 12 points after draining a trio of long-range shots. Junior
Khari Jabriel Allen netted eight points off the bench.
Johnson is now 19 points away from reaching 1,000 in his career. He's looking to become the 39th student-athlete from Alcorn to reach that plateau. Johnson tallied the 52nd double-figure scoring game of his career.
Sophomore
Yalen Reed, the SWAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, swatted away a pair of blocks.
Baylor was led by Jo Lual Acuil Jr. who posted a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds. Manu Lecomte registered a game-high 17 points.
Alcorn will close out the weekend Sunday when it travels to Central Arkansas for a 1 p.m. game at the Farris Center. It will complete a five-game road swing to open the season.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Montez Robinson
Opening Statement
"I thought the guys competed the whole game. The effort was great. One of the things we were preaching early in the game was we had to rebound. We could not just stand there and just jump with them because of the length and size. We did not do a good job of boxing out the whole game. I thought we played in spurts of about 15 minutes of that where we actually tried to really box out guys, and we came up with some stops by doing that. But for the most part, I thought our effort was good, and that's a good ball team over there, No. 25 in the country. For us to come in and compete the way we competed is a plus. We're walking out with our heads held high and looking forward to the next opportunity to get on the court."
On
Reginal Johnson's performance
"Not bad, not bad. You know, in our league he's not going up against two seven-footers at the same time, but he was able to pick his spots in there. I don't know what he ended up with, about 12 to 14 points. That's right along his average. Last year he finished with us about 16 and 8, so he just knows how to score the ball and picks his spots. I wanted him to rebound a little bit better, but it was a good showing. There's a lot of good film. We can go back and teach him a few things so he can continue to get better so we can get ready for conference."
#FearTheBrave
