MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program nearly erased a 16-point fourth quarter deficit but ultimately dropped its season opener at Memphis on Tuesday evening.
The Lady Braves (0-1) made up for its .308 (20-for-65) field-goal percentage by producing a healthy dose of three-pointers as the purple and gold went 7-of-16 (.438) from behind the arc.
Alcorn was driven by senior
Jada Hargrove and junior college transfer
LaRae Rascoe who combined for 24 of the team's 54 points on the night.
Hargrove was the team's top scorer and rebounder with 13 points plus a career-high seven rebounds while also snatching two steals and distributing two assists. Rascoe made a good first impression in her Lady Braves debut with 11 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals to go along with a perfect 3-for-3 night from three-point territory.
Memphis (1-0) had three separate players score 11 points as Dulcy Mendjiadeu Fankam, Jamirah Shutes, and Lanetta Williams all tied for the team-high. Williams came one rebound shy of a double-double with a game-best nine rebounds while Shutes led the Lady Tigers in assists (6) and steals (5).
Rascoe scored the first point of the 2019-20 season with a free throw at the 8:56 mark of the opening quarter while senior
Toddriana Isler claimed the first bucket to give the Lady Braves a 3-2 lead. Memphis would go on a 13-6 run before Rascoe sunk the first triple of the campaign to cut the gap to three, 15-12. The Lady Braves trailed by only two (19-17) after the first ten minutes despite the blue and gray shooting lights out from the floor to the tune of 7-for-13 (.538).
Alcorn took a three-point advantage in the second quarter on two free throws by senior
Jada Hargrove (26-23) before nine unanswered by the Lady Tigers ended the half and sent the Lady Braves into the break trailing 32-26. Both squads struggled shooting in the second quarter as the two sides combined to go 5-for-25 (.200) on field goal attempts.
The third quarter was evenly matched through the first four minutes and change as the Lady Tigers had a 40-32 upper-hand. Memphis took control with an 8-0 surge which wound up being the last points of the quarter as the defenses shut both offenses out over the final three minutes (48-32). Coach Pruitt's girls were ice cold, only making 3-of-14 (.214) in the frame.
Alcorn's defense stepped up in a big way to help spark a comeback as the purple and gold held Memphis to three points while scoring ten of its own to get the deficit down to single digits (51-42) with four-and-a-half minutes remaining. A clutch three-pointer by Rascoe with 3:58 to go made it a two-possession game, 51-45. The Lady Braves got to within four (55-51) after Hargrove nailed a three-ball with eight seconds to go but UM converted two free throws to put the game on ice with four seconds left to end up with a final score of 57-51 in favor of the Lady Tigers.
The purple and gold will head to the Lone Star State for a Saturday morning showdown with Stephen F. Austin at 11 a.m. in Nacogdoches.
NOTES
- The Lady Braves are now 2-3 in regular season openers under head coach
Courtney G. Pruitt.
- Alcorn fell to 1-7 all-time against Memphis in the two programs' first meeting since 1997-98.
- Hargrove, the Lady Braves' top returning scorer picked up right where she started a year ago, notching her 20th career outing with ten or more points.
- Alcorn tallied more assists than Memphis, 11-9. Rascoe, Hargrove and freshman
Cayla Obillo each had a pair of assists each, with four other Lady Braves garnering one.
- The Lady Braves won the turnover battle as they had five less turnovers than Memphis (30-25) and scored five more points off of turnovers (21-16).
- The Lady Braves outscored the Lady Tigers 22-9 in the fourth quarter.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Courtney G. Pruitt
On Cutting The Deficit To Five In The Fourth Quarter:
"We really got in foul trouble and I think that really threw us off, it threw us out of rhythm and we weren't getting the offensive production that we normally have because our best offensive players were on the bench. Despite that, at the end of the third quarter we started doing a five-and-five offensive-defensive sub, that way we didn't put our offensive players in harm's way. It turned out to be the best thing for us, we couldn't get it where we wanted to and we had several opportunities to capitalize we just missed some wide open layups and you have that. The ball just didn't fall the right way, I can't be more proud of these young ladies' efforts that they put out tonight to only lose by six, 51-57 to a top team that played in their conference tournament last year says volumes."
On The Scoring Drought After Taking A 26-23 Second Quarter Lead:
"We were up three and then we had some key hitters go to the bench in foul trouble. We didn't want to risk them getting a third foul in the second quarter so I just made what I thought was the executive decision to save them for the second half but that really ended up hurting us because we didn't have any point production coming from our bench. We were able to still maintain and fight back from that deficit in the third quarter but we just missed layups, my count said 14 wide open missed layups which is 28 points so if you add that onto what we lost, by six, we would've won by 22. Those are the things that happen when you're playing a top team, hats off to the coach at Memphis and their team, they kept fighting and they didn't want us to regain the lead so that just prepares us more for conference. We can't get in early foul trouble and we've got to keep the hammer down when we establish a lead, we can't relinquish it. Memphis was a great coached team and I think that was a great test for us, so we just got to be ready for SFA [Stephen F. Austin] on Saturday."
On Turnovers:
"We weren't capitalizing on their turnovers either, so that really hurt us. We did an excellent job in the first quarter of taking care of the ball but it goes back again to foul trouble, when we don't have our primary ball-handlers in the game we begin to turn it over. We were coughing it up, doing things that we don't normally do so I think we got really complacent at times once we did establish our lead, didn't keep pushing and didn't maintain."
On LaRae Rascoe's Debut:
"She's a difference-maker, we expect big things out of her. I think tonight she got rattled when we got behind, she's not used to playing from behind from her previous institution [Ancilla College] so she's just got to figure out how to continue to fight despite adversity but I was very proud of her. I was disappointed in the way we rebounded the ball, my expectation is for these young ladies is to slay the lion, so we got to do a better of boxing out and rebounding and going to get the basketball. I was very pleased with the effort the ladies put out tonight but we definitely got to go back to The Reservation and work on some key things like boxing out and rebounding, finishing at the cup on layups and being disciplined by not fouling."
#FearTheBrave
