HOUSTON – The Alcorn State University men's basketball program led 33-19 at the 7:34 mark of the first half, but Texas Southern stormed back with a 15-0 run and ultimately finished on top 85-70 Wednesday evening at H&PE Arena.
Alcorn (4-11, 0-2 SWAC) started the game hot and made six of its first nine three-pointers. Though, with a short-handed roster and a physical game inside, the Braves got into heavy foul trouble in the first half and the Tigers went on a hot streak to turn the game in their favor.
The Braves recorded four double-figure scorers. Senior
A.J. Mosby and sophomore
Devon Brewer notched 14 points apiece. Junior
Dante Sterling netted 13 points, and
Troymain Crosby registered 11 points and a team-high four rebounds.
TSU (2-13, 2-0 SWAC), which was picked to win the league in the SWAC Preseason Poll, was guided by Derrick Bruce's 25 points. Trayvon Reed established his presence inside with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Donte Clark ended with 13 points and six rebounds.
A pair of buckets early in the post by Brewer got the Braves out to a 7-3 lead. A couple of three-pointers by Carter extended it to 22-15 at the 10:12 mark.
Two long-range shots by Sterling put the Braves ahead 28-18 with 8:50 to go. After a technical foul was called on the TSU bench, Carter swished a pair of free throws to extend the edge to 31-19 with 8:03 remaining. Alcorn took its biggest of the game, 33-19, on a jumper by freshman
Troymain Crosby with 7:34 left.
The Tigers punched back with a huge 15-0 spurt to come back and take a 34-33 lead at the 3:49 mark as the Braves went cold from the field and had five student-athletes with two fouls. TSU led 38-36 at the break.
TSU kept the momentum going early in the second half and scored the first eight points to leap in front 46-36 with 17:35 remaining.
An old-fashion three-point play by Mosby chipped the deficit to 63-55 with 10:14 left. A tip-in by Crosby made it 68-61 at the 7:34 mark.
The Tigers scored the next five points to push their edge back up to 73-61 with 6:34 left.
In total, the game featured four ties and four lead changes. The Braves outscored the Tigers 34-30 in the paint.
TSU was 26-for-32 (.813) from the free throw line and 11-for-11 in the second half.
Alcorn will play its first conference home game Saturday when it hosts Jackson State at 5:30 p.m. at the Davey L. Whitney Complex. The Braves swept the season series last year and are going for their fourth consecutive victory over JSU.
NOTES
- Wednesday marked a rematch of the 2017 SWAC Championship game. The second-seeded Braves fell to top-seeded TSU in a defensive battle 53-50 on March 11, 2017.
- The Braves entered the game leading the conference in field goal percentage defense (.456) and limited the Tigers to a .424 mark. Alcorn was also second in three-pointers made per game (8.1) and nailed nine in the contest.
- Mosby posted his 28th career double-figure scoring game and 12th this year. He went five-for-nine from the field and three-for-five from beyond-the-arc.
- Sterling continued his streak of making at least one three-pointer in every game this season. He went three-for-six from long-range in the game. Sterling has now reached double-digits in scoring in six of the last seven games and nine times this year.
- Brewer netted his third double-figure scoring game of the year. His 14 points were one shy of his career-high set at Iowa State on Dec. 17. Brewer was 7-for-11 from the field in the match.
- Crosby etched his fourth double-digit scoring game and second in his last three outings. He was five-for-seven shooting and got his hands on a pair of steals.
- In his third season, head coach
Montez Robinson hoists a 26-12 SWAC record.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Montez Robinson
Opening Statement
"We have to learn to sustain. When you have a lead and are doing everything right, you have to be able to sustain that. TSU got too many second chance rebounds during their run to get back into the game. We also helped them out with turnovers. Through the first 12 minutes, we had just one turnover in the game. By half, we had seven turnovers. TSU grabbed offensive rebounds and made winning plays to get it done. It's tough when your defense guards so well and shuts them down for 27 seconds of the shot clock just to give up an offensive rebound and let the other team score on second chance points. I think the guys got a little deflated on the second chance puts and we went into a rut."
On getting a 14-point lead
"We were making shots. There's no rocket science to it. We were making Division I shots, driving and penetrating. That stopped happening after we got our lead. We started getting away from the things that were working.
Devon Brewer was playing great early on but got in foul trouble. Though, we need that same effort from him night-in and night-out. The staff and I are going to get back to the drawing board and make changes where we need to"
On Texas Southern's run
"I told the team before the game that this is the best team in the league. They've been the best team for years. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. We didn't do that tonight obviously. TSU got to the line and had 32 free throw attempts compared to our 11. We had our hands down when they shouldn't have been down, and we didn't move our feet at times; there's a lot of correctable things that we'll see on the film. We have to find a way to be more diligent and make the plays for an entire game. One of the good things though about basketball as we have another game just a few days from now and it will be another opportunity for us to come out and play."
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