LORMAN, Miss. – A double-double from senior
Reginal Johnson sparked a come-from-behind 74-69 victory for the Alcorn State University men's basketball program in overtime against Alabama State on Saturday on Senior Day at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
Alabama State (10-14, 8-5 SWAC) led for most of the game, but a three-pointer by Johnson knotted it up at 61-61 with 40 seconds left. Johnson then scored eight points in overtime to propel the Braves (9-17, 5-9 SWAC) to the win.
Johnson helped the Braves shoot .833 (5-6) in the overtime period. He ended the night with game-highs of 23 points and 11 rebounds. The 11 boards marked a season-high.
Johnson was one of three Alcorn student-athletes in double-figures. Junior
Maurice Howard and sophomore
Troymain Crosby both turned in exactly 14 points and five rebounds. Howard played all 45 minutes and also grabbed a career-high four steals.
Off the bench, junior
Alonzo Campbell tallied a solid seven points and career-high nine rebounds. He swatted a career-high four blocks.
The Hornets were paced by Jacoby Ross who recorded 21 points and made four three-pointers. Reginald Gee aided the attack with 16 points.
The Braves held an edge of 44-35 in rebounding.
Alcorn came out hot early and used a three-pointer by Johnson and an old-fashion three-point play by Crosby to dart out to an 8-2 lead. Though, ASU responded with a 10-1 run to jump ahead 12-9 at the 14:14 mark.
A three-pointer by senior
Khari Jabriel Allen put the Braves back on top 17-16 midway through the half. However, the Hornets answered with an 8-0 spurt to leap in front 24-17 with 8:28 left.
Alcorn went on a 7-0 run of its own which included free throws by Johnson and Campbell, and a three by Howard to tie it 31-31 with under a minute remaining. The Hornets scored the last bucket of the half on a three by Ross to carry a 34-31 edge.
The game was tied at 38 when Ross drilled another three which led to Alcorn playing from behind for a majority of the half. The Hornets looked to be pulling away after Leon Daniels made a three to change the score to 55-46 with 8:19 to go.
Still down by nine at the six-minute mark, the Braves slowly started to claw back. A huge throw-down dunk by Crosby got it started, and Howard netted a runner to trim it to 57-52 with 4:33 remaining. A jumper from the wing by Campbell further chipped it down to 59-56 with 2:34 left.
With 1:27 to go, Howard hit another jumper to trail just 59-58. After Ross converted a basket on the other end, Johnson fired up the crowd with his game-tying three-pointer with 40 seconds left.
The Braves got a stop defensively, and had one last chance with the ball under their own basket and seven seconds remaining. Alcorn threw a full-court pass the found Johnson near the basket, but he was turned the wrong way and his backwards lay-up attempt at the buzzer was off the mark.
Alcorn controlled the entire overtime period. Three consecutive lay-ups, including two and-ones gave the Braves a 68-62 edge. Crosby converted a lay-up to make it a 70-63 game with 1:03 remaining. The Hornets got it down to 72-68 with 24 seconds left, but free throws by Howard and Johnson sealed it.
Alcorn will play its home finale Monday at 7:30 p.m. when it hosts Alabama A&M. The Braves are 6-1 against the Bulldogs in four seasons under head coach
Montez Robinson.
NOTES
- The Braves honored seniors
Harold Givens,
TyQuaylon Smith, Johnson, Allen before the game. They will all make their final home appearances Monday. Johnson has spent the last five seasons with Alcorn, while Smith is a four-year letterwinner, and Allen and Givens two years.
- The Braves improved to 9-3 at home this year where they've outscored the opposition 896-731. They've won five of their last six at home.
- Alcorn is now 5-3 against the Hornets under Robinson. In four seasons, Robinson carries a 38-30 SWAC record and was the 2016-17 SWAC Coach of the Year.
- Thanks to Johnson's big night, the Braves outscored the Hornets 32-20 in points in the paint. Alcorn is now 7-0 (3-0 SWAC) when it outscores the opposition in the paint.
- The Braves entered the game ranked second in the SWAC in three-point defense (.315), assists (12.7 apg) and steals (7.8 spg). They held ASU to a .300 (9-30) mark from the beyond-the-arc, dished out 17 assists and grabbed eight steals.
- Johnson notched his ninth career double-double. It was also his eighth career 20-plus scoring game. He submitted his 68th career double-figure scoring game and 13th this year. It was also his ninth career double-digit rebounding game. Johnson is up to 1,297 career points.
- Despite a cold night shooting from Howard, he still managed to etch his 40th career double-figure scoring game and 18th this year. He's up to 80 three-pointers made this season which is a school record. Howard logged a career-high 45 minutes.
- Crosby reached double-figures for the 25th time in his career, 14th time this year and fourth time in the last five games. He was 6-for-9 from the field and played a season-high 37 minutes.
- Campbell's previous career-high in rebounding was five. He was a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor shooting.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Montez Robinson
Opening Statement
"I felt it was a great game played by both teams. We were really glad with the effort and energy that we came out with from the jump. We had a few letdowns here and there on defense when we missed a few assignments but were focused and locked in. I told the guys before the game that I saw the focus in their eyes because everything we went over yesterday in the scout, and today in shoot-around they were regurgitating that stuff back to us in pregame. The guys down the stretch did a magnificent job of just executing, running sets and making great passes."
On Johnson
What a night for No. 24 Reginal 'Monsta' Johnson. He came out for 23 (points) and 11 (rebounds) on Senior Night. He really refused to be beat tonight. His game-tying three was huge – that's what he does. It was just huge and he knew we needed it and he came through for it. The play was called for him and honestly I didn't know whether he was going to shoot or drive but he did a great job getting his feet set. Maurice did a great job of getting the ball to him, it was a great 1-2 punch and he knocked it down."
On Unforced Turnovers in the First Half
"It was all on us. The good thing is that we weren't giving up a lot of ball turnovers today. We had 16 turnovers down there, but they had 21 points off of those turnovers. We were turning the ball over in the first half but they were going out of bounds. If you're going to turn it over, give yourself an opportunity to set your defense up, so I was really pleased with that."
On Alabama State
"That's a good team over there, it's probably one of the most athletic teams in the conference. They have length, they got size and their guys do a really good job of going to that glass and crashing. That's just something we have to continue to stress and focus on is making sure we do a good job of boxing out."
Looking Ahead to Alabama A&M
"We just got to be focused and play our game, we can't beat ourselves. That's what's been happening down the stretch in our losses, we've been beating ourselves and we just can't be doing that."
#FearTheBrave
