Men's Basketball | 3/1/2019 9:36:00 AM

Alcorn Goes for Season Sweep over Southern

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BATON ROUGE, La. – Coming off an unbeaten home weekend, the Alcorn State University men's basketball program will look to keep rolling Saturday when it heads to Southern for a 5:30 bout at F.G. Clark Activity Center.
 
The Braves (8-17, 6-9 SWAC) can clinch a berth in the SWAC Championships with either a win over Southern (5-23, 4-11 SWAC) or a loss by Mississippi Valley State (5-24, 3-12 SWAC). The only way Alcorn misses the conference tournament is if it losses all three of its remaining games, and MVSU wins all three of its remaining games.
 
Alabama A&M (5-23, 4-10 SWAC) is on a postseason ban and cannot play in the SWAC Championships.
 
The Braves are going for the season sweep over Southern. In the first meeting this year in Lorman, junior Maurice Howard poured in 27 points on 7-for-11 3FG en route to a 76-64 victory.
 
The Braves are seeking their first road win of the year. Alcorn finished 10-3 at home where it outscored the opposition 957-786. The Braves won six of their last seven home games.
 
Alcorn ranks second in the SWAC in scoring defense (68.5 ppg), three-point defense (.310), assists (12.9 apg) and steals (7.9 spg).
 
Howard is the league's top three-point shooter. He ranks first in both three-point percentage (.398) and three-pointers made per game (3.1). He's already broken his own single-season school record in three-pointers made in a season with 84. It topped the 74 he made last year. Howard had the third longest active streak in the nation of making at least one three-pointer in a game. He did it for 39 straight games, but ended it at MVSU on Feb. 16, 2019.
 
Howard logs 36.1 minutes per game - also most in the league - and has played 40 minutes nine times. He averages a team-high 13.5 points per outing and is 35-for-38 (.921) from the free throw line. In a 76-64 victory over Southern, Howard netted a career-high 27 points and was 7-for-11 from long-range. Howard is coming off a 4-for-5 performance from three against Alabama A&M.
 
Sophomore Troymain Crosby is averaging 11.6 points and a team-high 5.2 rebounds per outing.
 
The Braves are coming off an unbeaten home weekend where they beat Alabama State 74-69 (OT) and AAMU 61-55. Senior Reginal Johnson took over against the Hornets on his Senior Day with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Eight of his points came in overtime. Alcorn improved to 5-3 against the Hornets and 7-1 versus the Bulldogs under Robinson.
 
The Braves are 7-0 (3-0 SWAC) this season when they outscore the opposition in points in the paint.
 
Junior Alonzo Campbell is coming off his best weekend of the season. The seven-footer posted seven points, nine rebounds and four blocks against ASU, and fllowed it up with a career-high 12 points and six rebounds versus AAMU.
 
Junior Deshaw Andrews ranks top-five in the SWAC in steals with 1.5 per game, while junior Devon Brewer is third in blocks with 1.3 per contest.
 
Southern beat AAMU 59-49, but fell to ASU 60-57 last weekend. Eddie Reese scores a team-high 13.2 points per game while shooting 37 percent from long-range. Sidney Umude puts up 12.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.
 
Alcorn is 6-2 against the Jaguars under head coach Montez Robinson. In four seasons, Robinson carries a 39-30 SWAC record and was the 2016-17 SWAC Coach of the Year.
 
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