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LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball team wraps up the regular season with a three-game home stretch that starts with a 3 p.m. contest against Southern Saturday at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
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The Lady Braves (11-15, 7-8 SWAC) are currently sixth in the conference standings after a 65-57 win at Alabama State on Monday. The offense has been paced by senior guards Tia Sanders at 15.2 points and Alexus Freeman at 14.7 points. The duo has a combined 107 three-pointers heading into Saturday. Senior forward Miracle Rushing recorded her ninth double-double of the season against the Lady Hornets and leads the team on the glass with 226 boards (9.0 rpg). Freeman is two steals shy of 100 and junior guard Cloe Lane and freshman forward Jamaysha Bernard each have 12 blocks to anchor the defensive front.
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Alcorn has made 627-1667 (37.6 percent) of its shots from the floor, to include 154-503 (30.6 percent) from beyond the arc, and converted 278-474 (58.6 percent) of its free-throws. The Purple and Gold net 64.8 points (-4.8) with 37.7 rebounds (-4.6), 12.5 assists, 19.9 turnovers, 11.6 steals, and 2.0 blocks per outing.
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"We're one game out of fifth right now, so we've just go to make things work," said head coach Courtney G. Pruitt. "We've got to take care of a very tough Southern team, Prairie View still has to come to us, and then they still have to play Southern as well. We have to go one day at a time, one game at a time. We have Southern on Saturday and we need to take care of business and take care of home."
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Southern is in first place in the league standings at 12-3 and is 13-11 overall. The Lady Jaguars four of their last five and are coming off a 58-46 win at Alabama A&M last Monday. Briana Green led the way with 8-19 shooting from the floor and a 2-6 effort at the line to tally 18 points. She just missed the double-double as she pulled down a team-high nine boards. Also in double figures were Samantha Duncan with 14 points and Courtney Parsons with 11.
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Green is the SU's leading scorer with 16.3 points per outing. The only other player averaging double digits is Duncan at 10.6. Duncan owns 38 threes on the season, while Green is the top rebounder with 6.8 boards per contest. The defense is paced by Sarai Blissett's 33 blocks and Green's 62 steals.
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SU is shooting 577-1507 (38.3 percent) from the field, 109-423 (25.8 percent) from long-range, and 308-458 (67.2 percent) at the charity stripe. The Lady Jaguars average 65.5 points (+0.8), 36.8 rebounds (-4.1), 13.2 assists, 16.0 turnovers, 10.5 steals, and 2.6 blocks per game.
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Southern leads the league in turnover margin (+5.29) and assist-to-turnover ratio (0.8). The Lady Jaguars are second in offensive rebounding (21.1 orpg).
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The teams met earlier this season on Jan. 27 in Baton Rouge, La. Down 15 toward the end of the third quarter, the Lady Braves fought back to within three but fell to Southern 64-56. Freeman and Sanders finished with 11 points apiece to lead Alcorn in the loss. Rushing was close to a double-double with nine points and a game-high 14 rebounds, while Lane contributed nine points off the bench.
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SU has taken the last two meetings between the teams while Alcorn has not lost to the Lady Jaguars on its home court since Jan. 31, 2015. The Lady Braves are 6-3 at the Whitney Complex this season, including 3-3 in SWAC play.
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NOTES
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- Alcorn held Alabama State to just five points in the first quarter of Monday's win at the Acadome. It marks the second fewest points an opponent has scored in a quarter this season (Blue Mountain College was held to just three points in the second quarter on Nov. 17). The team also scored 29 minutes in the final 10 minutes, marking Alcorn's most productive quarter of the season.
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- The Lady Braves made just one three-pointer on the night in 15 attempts. It marks season lows in threes made and three-point field goal shooting percentage.
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- Alcorn swept ASU in the regular-season series for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
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- Sanders has 64 threes on the season to rank third on the program's single-season record list. The Pensacola, Fla. native needs three more to tie for second and five more to tie with Kierra Levy's mark of 69, set in 2002-03.
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- Through games played on Feb. 21, Freeman ranks fifth in the nation in steals per game (3.77) and sixth in steals (98). She leads the conference and has moved up to 25th nationally in field goal attempts (445).
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- The Lady Braves are second in the nation in three-point field goal defense (25.8 percent), seventh in turnovers forced (22.77 per game), 12th in steals (302), and 13th in steals per game (11.6 spg).
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