Brown Nets Team-High 14 Points on Senior Day, Lady Braves Fall to Alabama State

LORMAN, Miss. – A couple of second half flurries by the Alcorn State University women's basketball program weren't enough to overcome a cold first half in a 70-58 defeat Saturday on Senior Day at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
 
The Lady Braves (4-22, 3-11 SWAC) trailed 31-17 at halftime when the trimmed the deficit down to just five points. After the Hornets (10-14, 9-4 SWAC) pushed their lead back up to 18 in the third, Alcorn outscored them 22-16 in the fourth.
 
Senior De'Asia Brown registered a team-high 14 points on her Senior Day. She was 6-for-15 from the floor with a pair of three-pointers. Junior Toddriana Isler also reached double-figures with 11 points and four rebounds.
 
Alabama State saw Ayana Emmanuel and Shmya Ward score 25 points apiece. They combined to shoot 16-for-23 from the field.
 
The Hornets were hot all night and ended with a .625 (25-40) field goal percentage. On the other end of the floor, it took a while for the Lady Braves to get-going and they finished with a .338 (23-68) shooting mark including .231 (6-26) from long-range.
 
Brown scored Alcorn's first bucket of the game, but ASU responded with a 9-0 run to leap ahead 11-2 early. Other baskets in the first quarter for the Lady Braves included a jumper by Brown and a lay-up by sophomore Aysha Kirkland as they trailed 17-6 at the end of the period.
 
The Hornets scored the first six points of the second to extend their advantage to 22-6 at the 8:12 mark. A lay-up by Isler and a jumper by junior Jada Hargrove made it 22-10 with 5:58 remaining. The game was relatively even the rest of the half, but ASU was still ahead 31-17 at the break.
 
A furious rally by the Lady Braves began early in the third. Trailed 33-17, Hargrove and Brown knocked down three-points to make it a 10-point game. Isler then followed with both a three-pointer and a lay-up to cut the deficit to just 35-30 with 5:23 left.
 
However, the Hornets punched back with a quick 5-0 spurt to push the lead back up to 44-32 with 3:21 to go. ASU kept it going with another 6-0 run to lead 54-36 at the end of the quarter.
 
Early in the fourth, a jumper by sophomore Kirdis Clark sparked a 6-0 run for Alcorn to trim it to 56-45 with 7:40 remaining. The Lady Braves trailed by single-figures, 65-56 after a pair of three-pointers by freshman Diamond Hall with 3:18 left. Though, they couldn't come any closer.
 
The Lady Braves will play their final home game of the season at 5:30 p.m. Monday when they host Alabama A&M. Alcorn is 5-2 against AAMU under head coach Courtney G. Pruitt who is in her fourth season.
 
NOTES
- Brown was honored at halftime. She was accompanied by her parents Quentin and Andrea Brown, and her sister Zyah. The computer science major scored in double-figures for the 19th time this year and 23rd time in her career. Brown has scored at least 10 points in 13 of 14 league games. She's up to 431 points in her two years at Alcorn.
 
- Alcorn entered the game leading the SWAC in offensive rebounding with 16.4 per game and pulled down 19 tonight. Clark secured a team-high four offensive boards.
 
- In conference games this year, the Lady Braves have outscored the opposition 264-255 in the fourth quarter.
 
- Alcorn and Alabama State have split the last four meetings, as the Hornets swept the season-series last year, but the Lady Braves did the same last year.
 
- Isler notched her 11th double-digit game of the season and sixth in the last seven games.
 
- The Lady Braves tallied 15 steals and forced 27 turnovers. Kirkland intercepted four steals which matched her career-high.


 
Quoting Alcorn head coach Courtney G. Pruitt
On Defending the Alabama State's High-Low offense:
"It really hurt us. We got into some foul trouble trying to defend it. Though, we played way better defense than we have ever played tonight. We were really locked in, we got them to turn the ball over 27 times. I was really proud of the girls the way that they played defense but I think for us, we could not hit the broad side of a barn. We shot 33 percent for the game, but I remember in the first half we were 6-of-27 from the floor, we just could not get our shots to fall. At halftime we were 0-of-12 from the three-point line so I think we did a good job on defense we just could not score like we needed to tonight. We could not make a basket. We took care of the ball, we only had 16 turnovers to their 27. We did get out-rebounded plus eight, but their defensive effort was there, their energy was there, we fought back from being behind by 18 to cut it to five - you can't say anything about their effort everybody played hard, everybody did what they could, they did hurt us on the high-low and we can't get those shots back."
 
On the Free-Throw Disparity (30 to 11 In Favor of Alabama State):
"Emmanuel she went 15 times, she shot 15 free throws and that was just from their kick outs from the high-low. We were doubling down on Calhoun, we were also doubling down on Clark, not allowing them to throw it inside, but when you're doing that they made the quick kick-out to Emmanuel and she drove to the basket and that really hurt us."
 
On the Offense Getting Shots, But Struggling to Fall:
"We were clicking on offense, I thought we executed well, we found the open man, I thought we rebounded well with 19 offensive boards, those are second-chance opportunities we just couldn't throw it into the ocean. That happens, it wasn't our night, but you can't be displeased with the young ladies effort I think they gave 110 percent effort, they fought back from being behind, so we know we are not giving up because we still have a dog in the fight. So what we got to do is come in and take care of Alabama A&M, they have some very quick guards and they also have a great post player, so we just got to be prepared for Monday night."
 
On What Concerns Alcorn about Alabama A&M (Next Opponent):
"Their ability to be patient, they are a very patient team, there's nothing that they do that just wows you, but they stay together, they play team basketball. If we are locked in like we were tonight on defense, I'm not concerned about it. I know the Lady Braves are going to come out and be ready to play, we just got to not allow the same post problems to occur again on Monday night and out-rebound them and we'll be okay."
 
#FearTheBrave