Lady Braves Rout Louisiana College In Home Opener, 86-50

LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program got double-digit scoring efforts from four different players and had 14 Lady Braves log at least two points in a dominant 36-point victory.
 
The Lady Braves (1-4) shot the lights out as the purple and gold went 37-of-83 from the floor (.446) with 70 points coming from inside the paint. It was the largest margin of victory for Coach Pruitt's squad since they defeated Alabama State by 32 in January of 2018.

Louisiana College was held to 12-of-59 shooting (.203) including getting shut out from the field in the first quarter (0-for-14). Sydnee Glass fell one rebound shy of a double-double for the Lady Wildcats as she put together a 12-point, nine-rebound performance to lead the orange and blue in both categories.
 
In just her second career game, freshman Aja Wheeler lead the way in both scoring (11) and rebounding (8) while being perfect on four shot attempts.

Junior LaRae Rascoe logged her fourth game of ten points or more in five tries as a Lady Brave, notching ten while tying her season-best with four rebounds.

Senior Jada Hargrove came away with ten points of her own to go along with a season-high three assists.

Senior Charisma Walker rounded out the double-digit scorers for Alcorn, hitting the ten-point threshold while pulling down six rebounds of her own.

A pair of freshman in Nia McCalphia and Cayla Obillo each contributed eight points while Obillo continues to pile up the assist totals, having a game-high six on the evening.

Sophomore Diamond Hall fronted the defense with a game-best four steals while accounting for six points and grabbing six rebounds.
 
It was all Lady Braves from the opening tip inside the Davey L. Whitney Complex, putting 19 unanswered on the scoreboard while shutting out Louisiana College over the first 5:09 of the first quarter. LC got its only points of the quarter via free throw while Alcorn scorched the hardwood to the tune of 14-for 26 (.539) to take a controlling 29-5 lead after one.

The second quarter resulted in more purple and gold dominance as the girls from Lorman went on an 8-0 run to begin the frame. The rest of the quarter was evenly matched as Alcorn outscored the Lady Wildcats 13-12 after the media timeout as the Lady Braves headed into the halftime locker room holding a sizable advantage at 50-17.

The first four minutes of the third quarter went Louisiana College's direction, as it went on an 8-5 run to cut the gap to 30. A 9-0 surge by the Lady Braves opened the cushion back up to almost 40 and Alcorn settled for a 39-point edge heading into the final ten minutes of regulation, 69-30.

The final quarter was all about the newcomers to The Reservation as five of the six Lady Braves to score in the quarter were either freshmen or JUCO transfers. Cayla Obillo topped the scoring with four, junior Nyenkeer Malwal and Aja Wheeler each had three while two points came from Nia McCalphia and Tyginae Wright in her collegiate debut. The other three points in the fourth came courtesy of sophomore Alexia Hood. Alcorn finished the night with a final margin of 86-50.

The Lady Braves will not be able to celebrate this victory for long with a quick turnaround on tap as it heads to Nashville to face the Tennessee State Lady Tigers on Thursday night.
 
NOTES
- This was the first ever meeting between the two programs in women's hoops as Alcorn now takes a 1-0 series lead. 

Quoting Alcorn head coach Courtney G. Pruitt

Opening Statement:
"That's what we talked about in pregame, we wanted to make sure we put the ball in the hole. We shot 53 percent for the first quarter and we shot 44 percent for the game so I was very pleased with the way we came out but we want to do a little bit better throughout the game as far as putting the ball in the hole and we also got to do a better job of making free throws. All-in-all I was overall pleased with the game and how the Lady Braves played and we got a chance to look at everybody on the team."
 
On The Key To Getting Off To A Fast Start:
"Defense, being aggressive on defense and getting turnovers. We forced the Louisiana College ladies into 32 turnovers which we were very happy about and from those turnovers we were able to get the majority of our points which is something that we've been talking about during pregame, all during film session and we've got to do a better job of converting our turnovers. We just want to do a better job of converting, getting points out of our turnovers and being successful."
 
If Jada Hargrove Is The Catalyst Of The Team:
"I think she's definitely one of the motors and I think we have more than one but right now because she's a senior and she knows how these seasons go, she knows the ebbs and the flows of playing high-major teams and then playing a team that you can compete with. I think that she knows she has to get the team going and that's her responsibility is to be energetic and set the tone."
 
On Aja Wheeler's Ceiling As A Player:
"Aja comes to us from Minnesota, she actually won the state title for her 6A high school team during her junior year and made it to the state championship her senior year and lost. She comes from a team that is very aggressive on defense, she's a lefty, we like that because it throws defenses off but she is what I call a utility player. She does a great job rebounding, a great job of defense and running the floor and then she gets the points that nobody else wants to get; crash points, the long pass and getting that assist, the second chance points and then you get those fast break points. She's definitely our utility player and we need her every step of the way, she's really done a great job as a freshman coming in and helping us."

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