Braves Complete Season-Sweep over JSU, Extend Winning-Streak to Five

LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University men's basketball program shook-off Jackson State in the final three minutes to come out on top 69-58 Saturday at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
 
The Braves (10-11, 7-3 SWAC) were clinging to a 52-50 edge with 2:57 left when senior Marquis Vance buried a three-pointer. After a stop defensively, Vance sunk a pair of free throws to put the team up seven and help pull away from the Tigers (9-14, 5-5 SWAC).
 
Alcorn also made its final 16 free throws over the last 4:24 to help seal it and win its fifth straight.

The Braves completed the season-sweep over JSU for the first time since 2011-12. Alcorn won the first meeting this year 63-50 on Jan. 11 on the road.
 
Junior A.J. Mosby scored a team-high 16 points. Senior DeAndre Davis registered his first career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Vance neared a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds.
 
Off the bench, freshman Maurice Howard recorded 13 points and three assists, while junior Reginal Johnson tallied 12 points and five rebounds.
 
JSU saw Edric Dennis notch a game-high 21 points. Javeres Brent scored nine points off the bench.
 
The Braves held a slight 10-9 edge early after a lay-up by Davis, but the Tigers went on a 7-0 run to take a 16-10 lead at the 10:05 mark.
 
Still down 18-12, a put-back dunk by Davis and a lay-up by Vance cut the deficit to 18-16 with 7:40 to go. Back-to-back buckets by Johnson inside put Alcorn ahead 23-21 with 4:53 left. Though, JSU ended the half strong and took a 26-25 lead into the intermission.
 
Tied at 30 in the second half, Johnson converted an old-fashion three-point play and Davis made a lay-up to put the Braves up 35-30 with 15:35 remaining. Two more and-one's from Davis and Mosby extended the advantage to 42-32 at the 12:53 mark.
 
Alcorn led 46-36 when JSU came charging back with a 9-0 spurt to make it a 46-45 game with 6:41 to go. After a free throw by Johnson, a long-range shot by Dennis put the Tigers in the lead 48-47 with 6:01 left.
 
The Braves quickly answered with a three-pointer by Howard and a pair of free throws by Johnson on their next two possessions to regain a 52-48 edge with 4:24 left. JSU hit a pair of free throws to change the score to 52-50, but Vance responded with a three-pointer and then a drilled a pair from the charity stripe to push the lead up to 57-50 at the 2:08 mark.
 
Ultimately, Alcorn could not be caught since it didn't miss a free throw down the stretch. The Braves were 21-for-23 (.913) from the line in the second half.
 
The Braves will conclude their three-game homestand Monday when they host Grambling State at 7 p.m. at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
 
NOTES
- Alcorn has now won at least five games in a row three times over the last two seasons. Head coach Montez Robinson improved his SWAC record to 20-8.

- The Braves entered the game leading the league in field goal percentage defense (.389). They held the Tigers to a .328 (19-58) clip.
 
- Alcorn improved to 7-2 at home this season where it has outscored the opposition 692-556.
 
- It marked the first time this year Alcorn came back from a halftime deficit.
 
- The Braves improved to 5-0 this year when holding the opposition to under 60 points.
 
- Johnson has scored at least 12 points in 19 of the last 20 games, and has pulled down at least five rebounds in 20 of the last 21 contests. He etched his 38th career double-figure scoring game.
 
- Vance is just 10 points away from 1,200 in his career. He poured in his 66th career double-figure scoring game, 16th this year and fifth in a row. Vance entered the game ranked top-10 in the league in rebounding (7.0 rpg) and grabbed eight.
 
- Mosby netted the second-highest scoring game of his career and reached double-figures for the seventh time in the last eight outings. He remained as the only Brave to start every game his year.
 
- Davis recorded his fifth consecutive double-digit scoring game. His 11 rebounds matched a career-high set against Oakland last season. Davis has grabbed at least six rebounds in six of the last seven games. In league-play, he entered the contest shooting .536 from the field and will see his numbers go up after going six-for-seven in the game.
 
- The Braves outscored the Tigers 30-18 in the paint and 25-14 off the bench.
 
Quoting Alcorn head coach Montez Robinson
On Alcorn's defense in the second half
"I'm going to have to give credit to DeAndre Davis. He man's the paint. He's always straight up-and-down and does a great job. We had to make a change at halftime because we were giving up too many live drives. We also were having trouble contesting their threes. We weren't doing a great job defensively in the first half but we made the adjustments we had to make."
 
On making free throws
"We've known all along that we have good shooters. We are a good free throw shooting team and a good three-point shooting team. We devote time during every practice to free throw shooting and getting shots up. It's starting to pay-off. Our guys knew that this was an important ball game and they were focused."
 
On Maurice Howard
"He plays with a lot of confidence. He's a great free throw shooter, he can handle the ball and if you leave him open he'll shoot lights-out. Sometimes you see freshmen that are afraid to take the big shot but he definitely does not shy away. He wants the ball and wants to take the big shot."
 
Closing Statement
"The biggest thing for us is staying consistent. We still go through lulls at times, even tonight when we were up 10 and they came back to take the lead. We have to be consistent for 40 minutes. Still, we had five guys in double-figures tonight and we spread the ball around. There was no selfish play and our guys were out there having fun and enjoying the game of basketball."
 
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