Alcorn Game Notes | ESPN3 | Live Radio | Live Stats
BATON ROUGE, La. - As the end of the regular season draws near, the Alcorn State University women's basketball team faces Southern University Saturday on a 3 p.m. tip at the F.G. Clark Activity Center.
The Lady Braves (9-17, 9-6 SWAC) are currently tied for fifth in the SWAC standings and are hoping to lock up a top-four seed in order to host the first round of the SWAC Tournament.
Alcorn most recently utilized a 21-point run sparked by back-to-back Brianna Luton threes to roll over Alabama A&M 71-42. The Lady Braves ended the contest with a 24-13 edge in points off turnovers and 40-22 advantage on points in the paint.
Luton drilled multiple threes in her 11 league game, tallying a career-high 24 points on 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. She ranks second in the conference in three-point field goal percentage and first in threes made per game.
Junior Tia Sanders has scored 10-plus in 17 of 24 games played this season. Fellow junior Alexus Freeman (13.9), Sanders (11.6) and Luton (10.9) are all averaging double digits in league play.
Senior Henrietta Wells' 2.9 blocks per game ranks atop the SWAC and 12th in Division I. She has recorded at least one block in all but one contest and multiple blocks in 19 including 10 of the last 12.
The Lady Jags are one of the hottest teams in the SWAC, winning four of their last five games. A win over Southern would give Alcorn a head-to-head advantage in postseason seeding as the Lady Braves topped the Lady Jags 69-63 in Lorman earlier this season.
Southern boasts the SWAC's top scoring offense (68.1) and field goal percentage (45.3).
The Lady Jags are fronted by Briana Green and Cortnei Purnell who average 15.7 and 12.4 points per contest, respectively. Both of those marks rank in the Top 10 in the league.
Green (.505) and teammate Miaya Crowder (.504) make up the conference's top-two individual field goal percentages. Purnell is fourth at .491.
NOTES
- Alcorn has locked down opponents from three-point range to the tune of 22.4 percent (34-152), which is the second-best mark in the league.
- Junior Miracle Rushing's 3.5 offensive rebounds per game ranks third in the SWAC.
- The number 70 has a significant impact on Alcorn's W-L record. The Lady Braves are 12-1 in league play when scoring 70-plus points and 1-6 when allowing 70-plus dating back to last season.
- The Lady Braves have lost depth due to injuries to Dejah Joshua, Bridgejae Patterson and Brianna Tolliver, who were all considered key players on this year's squad. Joshua and Patterson each participated in one contest this season while Alcorn has been without Tolliver, a double-digit scorer in two of the first five games, for 21 straight games.
- Alcorn ranks third in league in scoring offense (64.7 ppg | ) and second in points allowed per contest (58.9 ppg).
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