LORMAN, Miss. – Matching his career-high in scoring, junior
Troymain Crosby submitted a double-double but the Alcorn State University men's basketball program fell to Jackson State 75-65 Saturday at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
Crosby registered 22 points and pulled down a season-high 10 rebounds. He also grabbed a career-high four steals.
Though, the Braves (5-9, 1-2 SWAC) couldn't overcome a tough shooting night as a team. The long range shots weren't falling as they finished 7-for-22 (.318) including 4-of-14 (.286) in the second half.
Also in double-figures for Alcorn was senior
Maurice Howard. He submitted 16 points and four assists on 6-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-7 from beyond-the-arc.
The Braves outrebounded the Tigers (5-11, 2-1 SWAC) by a 38-35 margin. In addition to Crosby's 10, senior
Corey Tillery, junior
Kobe Wilson and senior
Deshaw Andrews secured five rebounds apiece.
The Tigers were paced by Roland Griffin's 27 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. He was 9-of-10 from the free throw line. Venjie Wallis scored 13 points off the bench. Tristan Jarrett, who leads the SWAC in scoring with 20 points per game, ended with 12.
Alcorn started the game ahead 4-0 on a jumper by Crosby and a lay-up by senior
Alonzo Campbell. The Braves extended it to 12-6 at the 14:54 mark after a three by Tillery.
The key moment in the first half was when the Tigers went on a 17-2 run midway through. They went from being down 13-8 to ahead 25-15 with 6:07 remaining.
JSU led 33-21 when the Braves scored the final five points of the half on a jumper by Crosby and a three by Howard to trail 33-26 at the break.
The Tigers extended their lead to as many as 50-33 in the second half when the Braves slowly clawed back in it. A three by Tillery got it started, and a long range shot by Howard cut the deficit to 53-45 with 11:46 to go.
The Braves came within three, 53-50 at a jumper by Crosby with 9:10 left. Though, Alcorn could never get any closer. JSU used a late run to gets its lead back into double-figures, and the Braves couldn't catch up down the stretch.
Alcorn will close out the home weekend Monday when it hosts Grambling State at 7:30 p.m. at the Davey L. Whitney Complex. The Braves are 71-42 all-time against GSU.
NOTES
- The Braves saw their six-game home winning-streak come to an end. Alcorn has still won 10 of the last 12 inside the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
- Alcorn head coach
Montez Robinson is now 40-35 in his career against the SWAC. He's in his fifth season.
- Crosby matched his career-high of 22 points set against Rust College on Dec. 1, 2018. He was one rebound shy of a career-high. Crosby turned in his 36th career double-figure scoring game and fifth 20-plus performance. It was his fourth career double-double.
- With four assists in the game, Howard is up to 268 in his career. He's one shy of fifth all-time in school history as Michael Phelps dished out 269 from 1981-85. He notched his 54th career double-figure scoring game and 10th in a row. Howard ranks first in the SWAC in threes made per game (3.1) and was above average with four.
- Alcorn outscored JSU 14-11 in second chance points and held a 13-8 advantage in offensive rebounding.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Montez Robinson
Opening Statement
"This was a really tough loss tonight. I thought we were moving the ball, getting some open looks and did a lot of good things early. We made shots, were rebounding and playing defense, but then we went stagnant. JSU started clashing the glass and Number 1 Roland Griffin beat us tonight. We tried three or four different guys on him defensively, double teamed him but he still made us pay. I give a lot of credit to Jackson State for the way they played – they kept going to him."
On what the game plan was to stop JSU
"We wanted to stop Roland Griffin and Tristan Jarrett. We wanted to keep the ball out of their hands as much as possible. Griffin made a few acrobatic shots here and there, but we have to do a better job of not letting him catch the ball so close to the basket. We have to do a better job of contesting shots without fouling. Instead of walling up with our hands straight up, we were trying to get blocks. We're a good defending team, but we're not a shot blocking team and we were doing a lot of things out-of-character."
On Alcorn's three-point shooting
"Instead of letting the offense work for us, we were trying to work the offense with a lot of one-on-one plays. What we saw tonight was completely different than the Texas Southern game where we moved the ball with pace and were getting open looks. This game, we were trying to make too many one-on-one plays. We also turned the ball over too much, and most of them were unforced turnovers. JSU scored 20 points off our turnovers which is way too many. We have to let the offense work for us."
On Troymain Crosby
"He did a great job of attacking the ball and playing downhill. He did a great job of getting to his spot, and often times he would draw three defenders with him. There were times he could have kicked it out, but he saw daylight in there and tried to make plays to help us win."
#FearTheBrave
