LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program got a spectacular performance from senior
Jada Hargrove who led the team with a season-high 19 points, career-best nine assists, six rebounds and a season-best five steals during a one-sided victory over the Lady Bulldogs.
The Lady Braves (3-4) have now won three straight games for the first time since 2017-18 and did so with four players reaching double-figure scoring; Hargrove, junior
Kirdis Clark (11 – season-high), redshirt junior
Aysha Kirkland (10 – career-high) and junior
LaRae Rascoe (10).
Kirkland and Clark had their shots falling like rain inside the Davey L. Whitney Complex, combining to go 10-of-13 (.769) from the floor while contributing seven steals between them.
Hargrove came one assist short from becoming the first Lady Brave since 2012-13 to have a ten-assist night, setting a new career-best in the process.
As a unit, Alcorn recorded 29 steals on the evening which is the most by the program since the athletics department kept electronic stats in 2012-13.
Seven separate Lady Braves snatched two or more steals in the contest with 11 girls having at least one.
Tougaloo College (3-6) had three of their own hit double-digits in scoring as Amari Pittman (12), Daysia Dedeaux (11) and Tania Young (10) each crossed the ten-point threshold.
Karry Callahan was the Lady Bulldogs leader in every other category, topping the red and blue in rebounds (8), assists (6) and steals (4).
Rascoe got the good vibes going by draining a three-pointer to open the contest, setting the purple and gold up for six unanswered to begin the game. Tougaloo then went on a modest 6-4 run to make it 10-6 but another six straight by Alcorn opened it to a ten-point margin (16-6). The visitiors from Jackson would come back with a vengeance, posting ten consecutive points to even the score at 16. Coach Pruitt's squad settled in with the final four points of the quarter to take a 20-16 edge after one.
The Lady Braves extended its four-point run into the second quarter, pushing the cushion back out to ten (26-16). Alcorn outscored Tougaloo by 11 the rest of the half, taking a 21-point upper-hand into halftime. The 31 points scored by the Lady Braves is the most in a single quarter by a ten-point margin.
TC came out in the third quarter and put a small dent in the lead, shrinking the deficit to 15 at 53-38. Ten out of the next 12 points went to the purple and gold to halt the momentum and ballooned the advantage back up to 22 (63-41). Both squads would put seven on the scoreboard to close out the third as Alcorn went into the final frame up big, 70-48.
The two teams both logged their lowest point totals of the game in the fourth quarter as Tougaloo contributed 13 points and Alcorn recorded 15 as the purple and gold are riding high with its third straight triumph, 85-61 over the Lady Bulldogs.
Alcorn will get to enjoy Thanksgiving in the Florida sun as it travels to Daytona Beach Friday and Saturday to participate in the Daytona Beach Invitational, facing Ole Miss and Clemson, respectively.
NOTES
- This was the 11th ever meeting between the two women's basketball programs with Alcorn improving to 7-4 and extending its winning streak in the series to five games.
- The Lady Braves are now 60-22 (.732) in program history when facing non-Division I opponents and sit at 7-2 under Coach Pruitt in such matchups.
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Jada Hargrove has been a woman on a mission this season, logging five double-figure scoring outings while averaging a team-best 12.6 points a night and posting 2.9 assists per game (20 overall).
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LaRae Rascoe extended her streak of double-digit scoring to four games and has had ten points or more in every contest except for the one at North Texas while pacing the club with 21 steals.
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Aysha Kirkland holds onto her perch atop the rebounding list for the purple and gold this season, totaling 30 rebounds for a 4.3 per game average.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Courtney G. Pruitt
Opening Statement:
"It feels great, I was telling people before the game 'good things come in threes'. I'm just ecstatic that we were able to force Tougaloo into 52 turnovers, that has to be a record, I'm very proud of that. I was disappointed, not being ungrateful but we have to convert more on our turnovers and we left about 30 points on the floor just because we missed our layups. That's something that we really have to focus in on, I was very happy that we shot over 70 percent from the free throw line, I'll take the win but I know we have a very tough Ole Miss team on Friday at 7 o'clock, so we're going to go home, eat some turkey and head down to Daytona to get ready for Friday."
On Tougaloo Hanging Around And Not Being Able To Put Them Away Early:
"Coach Barnes' team plays hard for 40 minutes, they never gave up, they never stop playing defense, they do not stop being aggressive and that's what you want because that's what you're going to see all conference long. Nobody is just going to lay down and give you the ballgame and that's something that we've got to understand that we've got to bring our A-game and we got to keep pushing the other team to the limit. Just the little stuff, turning the ball over, unforced turnovers, we had 26 turnovers when we shouldn't have because we got careless with the ball so just little stuff that I know we can improve on but I'm ecstatic about those 52 turnovers."
Was This Your Team's A-Game Tonight?:
"Definitely not, B- just because we did not take care of the ball, which we stressed so much, and we did not finish at the rim the way we wanted to. Those were wide-open layups, point blank layups that we know we make all the time in practice. I think it was just a lack of focus tonight, the ladies were excited since their out of school and they lose focus, get to have some down time, I think it was just lack of focus, Charles."
#FearTheBrave
