LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program fought back from an 18-point deficit to within three at the end of the third quarter, but Grambling State held on as the Lady Braves fell to the Lady Tigers 75-68 Monday at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
Senior guard Tia Sanders tallied 26 points as she shot 9-22 from the field, including 5-12 from beyond the arc, and 3-5 at the free-throw line. She added eight rebounds with four assists and a pair of steals. Senior guard Alexus Freeman finished with 19 points and redshirt-sophomore guard Brianna Tolliver was close to a double-double as she added a season-high 11 points and a career-high nine rebounds.
The Lady Braves shot 25-74 (33.8 percent) from the floor, 9-31 (29.0 percent) from long-range, and 9-14 (64.3 percent) at the free-throw line.
Monisha Neal opened the scoring with a three-pointer and Kailyn Gideon added a layup to give Grambling the early 5-0 lead. Jada Hargrove put Alcorn on the board with a jumper, but Neal hit another three from the top of the key. The Lady Braves closed the gap 12-8 as Jamaysha Bernard scored a bucket in the paint with 5:10 left in the opening quarter. The visitors then scored 12 unanswered and the Lady Tigers ended the first with a 24-8 advantage.
After a Justice Coleman layup, Sanders scored her first points with a three-pointer and Tolliver scored a floater in the lane. With the Lady Tigers up 35-18, Freeman got back-to-back buckets as the game reached the 3:59 media timeout. After Tolliver converted a pair of freebies and Hill got a layup to fall, junior guard De'Asia Brown kicked it out to Sanders and the Pensacola, Fla. native knocked down the three from the right corner. Freeman then put up a layup to make it a 10-point GSU lead, 39-29 at the 1:15 mark. Arial Williams had a 1-2 effort at the charity stripe and added an old-fashioned three-point play to end the half. The Lady Tigers went into the locker room in control 43-29.
It took nearly two minutes for the first points of the third quarter as Sanders made both of her free shots with 8:10 on the clock. She then followed a Coleman score in the lane with a three-pointer up top. Freeman added a layup to force a GSU timeout at the 5:37 mark. Sanders capped off the 7-0 run to pull Alcorn to within 45-38. Junior forward Ugochinyere Nwarie trimmed the Grambling lead to 50-45 as she beat her defender in the post, but the guests responded with a Neal jumper and a 1-for-2 effort by Coleman at the stripe. After a Lady Tiger turnover with just under three seconds, Freeman launched up a three as Alcorn pulled to within 53-50 headed into the final 10 minutes of action.
Grambling started off quick in the fourth quarter with six straight when Hargrove made a pair of free shots. Freeman found Tolliver in the left corner for a long-range shot, but Hill and Williams got back-to-back layups to push the lead back up to 10, 65-55 with 4:09 remaining in the game. Tolliver scored an old-school three and Freeman hit a three ball to get the score back down to 67-61 at the 2:44 mark. Following a 6-3 run by the guests, Tolliver went 1-for-2 at the line and Sanders sank a long ball from the right corner. Alcorn was slow to foul, however, and Williams scored both of her free-throws as GSU held on for the decision.
GSU had four players in double digits: Hill and Coleman each scored 16 while Neal and Williams were right behind with 15 apiece. The Lady Tigers were 30-47 (63.8 percent) from the field, 3-7 (42.9 percent) from deep, and 12-19 (63.2 percent) at the line.
Alcorn scored more points off turnovers (24-17), more second-chance points (24-5), out-rebounded the visitors (39-34), and grabbed more steals (15-8).
The Lady Braves return to action this Saturday as Alcorn makes the short trip north to Itta Bena, Miss. for a 3 p.m. conference game at Mississippi Valley State.
Notes
- Grambling State shot 17-25 (68.0 percent) in the first half, whereas Alcorn went 12-39 (30.8 percent).
- Bernard tied her season mark with seven boards.
- Tolliver made a season-high four free-throws and tied her season high with three field goals.
- Sanders tied her season highs with four assists and two steals. She also played the full 40 minutes, marking her fourth complete game this season and sixth of her career.
- Nwarie followed up her career-high four steals in Saturday's game against JSU with another four tonight. She also logged a career-high 28 minutes.
- Rushing grabbed four steals for the third time this season.
- Hargrove was a perfect 2-for-2 at the line to tie her season high. It marks the second time this season she's shot 100 percent from the stripe and the fourth time she's made multiple free-throws.
- Coming into the game, Alcorn was 5-0 when out-rebounding opponents. This is the first time this season the team has won the battle on the glass but didn't come away with the win.
Quoting Head Coach Courtney G. Pruitt
On a valiant effort by the team
"Yes, but it wasn't good enough. We didn't figure out early enough that we were going to speed them up. It was in the game plan, but you can't get out there and play for them. We had a much better effort than Saturday, but it wasn't enough. Grambling is a tough team and we definitely have to figure things out before we go on a tough swing to Mississippi Valley and Arkansas-Pine Bluff next week."
On battling back after a shaky start
"We managed to claw and fight back. We had excellent second and third quarters, scoring 21 points in each. We were able to force them into 25 turnovers and we out-rebounded them 39-34, but our shooting still did not come up. We shot 25 percent in the first quarter and that really hurt us. We have to get back to shooting it how we did at the beginning of the season, and it will come. This is the first four games. We were able to get one on the road, so now we've got to get two more on the road and balance things out."
#FearTheBrave
