LORMAN, Miss. – Despite trailing the entire game, the Alcorn State University men's basketball program had the chance to tie or win the game on its final possession, but Prairie View A&M held on for a 57-54 final Monday at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
The Braves (4-10, 0-2 SWAC) had the ball down by two with 10 seconds left at midcourt. Alcorn tried to penetrate the defense by driving it, but an off-balance shot was off the mark and rebounded by PVAMU (4-11, 2-0 SWAC) with just three seconds left. The Panthers made one of two free throws after Alcorn fouled, but the Braves had to go the full court and weren't able to get another shot up.
It was a wire-to-wire win for PVAMU, which led by as many as 12 in the game.
Senior
Reginal Johnson guided the Braves off the bench with 12 points and seven rebounds. Junior
Maurice Howard also reached double-figures with 10 points and five rebounds.
The Panthers were paced by Darius Williams who notched a game-high 20 points and six rebounds. Devonte Patterson ended with 15 points.
The Braves out-rebounded PVAMU 41-35. In addition to Johnson's seven boards, sophomore
Troymain Crosby pulled down six, and Howard and junior
Devon Brewer secured five apiece. All 10 Braves that played in the game recorded at least one rebound.
Alcorn got off to a slow start as the Panthers scored the first six points of the game and led 11-2 at the first media timeout. A pair of free throws by Howard chipped into the deficit 15-8 at the 12:09 mark. A lay-up by junior
Khari Jabriel Allen trimmed it to 25-20 with 6:18 to go.
Down 31-25, Howard drilled a three-pointer and Johnson made a free throw to trail just 31-29 with 2:57 remaining. PVAMU held a slight 38-34 advantage at the intermission.
The Panthers scored the first six points of the second half to go up by double-figures. The Braves were still down 53-43 midway through the half when junior
DeShaw Andrews and sophomore
Jael Scott both converted lay-ups to again start chipping away.
An inside bucket by Johnson made it 54-49, and a big three-pointer by Allen from the quarter cut it to 54-52 with 2:02 left. Alcorn came as close as 55-54 after a jumper by Crosby with 17 seconds, but were forced to foul. PVAMU made one of two free throws which led to the final sequence.
The Braves will be back in action Saturday when they hit the road to Jackson State for a 5:30 p.m. contest.
NOTES
- Alcorn is now 4-2 at home this year.
- Braves head coach
Montez Robinson moved to 33-23 in the SWAC. He's in his fourth season.
- Johnson etched his 60th career double-figure scoring game and fifth this year. He's up to 1,162 career points.
- Howard scored in double-figures for the 30th time in his career and eighth time this year. He logged 40 minutes for the second time in his career.
- The Braves swatted away six blocks from five different student-athletes. Junior
Harold Givens rejected a pair.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Montez Robinson
Opening Statement
"Our guys were out there scrapping and working for plays. We were close at the end there with a one-point game and we gave away an offensive rebound off of a missed free throw. The game was ours for the taking, we had them on their heels and we didn't capitalize on it. The problem wasn't the last four or five minutes of the game, it was the first 10 minutes. Those are the things our guys have to understand. We have to advantage of every opportunity. You can't play the game with that weight on you in the end."
On free throw shooting
"I thought we did a good job of putting the right guys on the foul line. Guys who usually don't miss but don't shoot well under pressure. We've got to finish them. We didn't finish the game. Our young guys haven't experienced this kind of basketball yet. Tight, gut wrenching, D-I conference games. We have to teach them that every possession counts. We've got to play 40 minutes in conference."
On what he told his team after the game
"The locker room was tough. I've been telling them no more excuses. If you don't continue to play hard you end up with three-point losses. We've got to keep hitting hard. I want them to hold me accountable because I'm going to make sure I hold them accountable."
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