ITTA BENA, Miss. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program rode a career night from junior
Nyenkeer Malwal (26 points, eight rebounds) to a decisive 81-67 victory at Mississippi Valley.
The Lady Braves' (7-10, 3-2 SWAC) shot better than 50 percent for the floor for the first time in over a calendar year against Valley, scorching the net by going 34-of-62 (.548).
Malwal's 26 points, 11 field goals made, eight rebounds and 20 minutes of action all went down as season-bests while hitting an absurd 11-of-12 shots (.917). The Jacksonville College (Texas) transfer tripled her previous season-high in points (8), doubled her previous high mark in rebounds (4) and had the same amount of field goals in this game than she had coming into the contest (11-for-22).
The forward from Wylie, Texas became the first Lady Braves player to make 10 or more field goals since January 13, 2018 (
Alexus Freeman) as well as the first player to score 25-plus points coming off the bench since
Norianna Haynes dropped 33 versus Arkansas-Pine Bluff in January of 2016.
Junior
Kirdis Clark continues her resurgence in conference play, tying career-highs in points (15) and field goals (6).
Junior
LaRae Rascoe reached the double-figure point plateau for the seventh consecutive time, contributing 12 points to along with a team-best four assists.
Sophomore
Diamond Hall recorded her third straight game with ten boards or more, leading all players with 11 rebounds.
Mississippi Valley State (1-14, 0-4 SWAC) got a game-best seven assists out of Ronni Williams and had three girls account for ten-plus points; Angelica Darcus (17), Azaria Howard (12) and Shelli Thigpen (12).
The first quarter got off to an explosive start with the two teams combining for 18 points over the first three minutes of action as the game was squared away at nine. The pace of play slowed down significantly for the remainder of the quarter as 13 points were put on the board in the final seven minutes with MVSU holding a 17-14 lead when the dust settled on the opening frame.
Alcorn was able to go ahead at the 6:39 checkpoint of the second quarter as the Lady Braves staked a 23-21 advantage. The purple and gold would heat up from that point, scoring 14 to Valley's six to make it a ten-point cushion at 37-27. Mississippi Valley State knocked down a pair of free throws before the break to send the squads into the halftime locker rooms with Alcorn clinging to an eight-point upper-hand (37-29).
Neither side seemed to give much ground over the opening five minutes of the second half as Coach Pruitt's crew held a 49-42 advantage at the media timeout. Both teams fought tough-and-nail throughout the third quarter as the Delta Devilettes tied the proceedings at 54 before Alcorn scored six unanswered to make the score 60-54 Lady Braves heading into the final period of play.
The red and green home side put the pressure on the purple and gold in the fourth, as Valley trimmed the gap down to three (68-65) with 4:20 left to go. Alcorn followed that up by icing the game accounting for 13 of the game's final 15 points to improve its record to 3-2 in the SWAC with an important 81-67 win.
Alcorn will spend the MLK holiday in Pine Bluff, Arkansas against the Lady Golden Lions at 5:30 p.m. inside the H.O. Clemmons Arena.
NOTES
- Alcorn improves to 54-31 all-time versus Mississippi Valley State as the Lady Braves have taken the won the past three matchups.
- The purple and gold logged 20 assists for the third time in the 2019-20 season and the first such occurrence against a division one opponent.
- Valley won the points off turnover battle (24-16) and had more second chance points (21-12).
- The Lady Braves eked out a slim victory regarding points in the paint (46-44) and are undefeated when winning that category (7-0, 3-0 SWAC).
Quoting Alcorn head coach Courtney G. Pruitt
On blowing a 10-point lead but regaining it to win:
"Hats off to Mississippi Valley, they played a great game and this is a tough place to play. They do a great job of getting the atmosphere and the tone set, heckling you and making you step up your game to play great basketball. We just couldn't tear away, we just couldn't make free throws when we needed to, I don't know if we felt pressure but I can tell you one thing that we did was that when we needed to find a basket, we found a basket and I think Nyenkeer [Malwal] stepped up today, every game it's somebody different but that shows you how deep our bench is and shows you that we have kids that can come out and produce."
On Nyenkeer Malwal's performance:
"We just want to keep pushing her and continue to do well but we just have to keep building our stats up and I saw we got three people in double-figures tonight so we're always successful when that happens. Nyenkeer had 26 points, eight rebounds and so we just got to keep pushing."
On losing the rebounding battle (42-38):
"It was awful at halftime but we really focused on that, at the beginning of the game we just weren't paying attention. If you noticed we weren't blocking out in the first half and we would just turn at the rim thinking the ball would come back in our hands so that's a testament to the atmosphere here at Mississippi Valley but we got going in the second half as we made adjustments at halftime in the locker room and we were able to even it out where they only had a plus-four and we got the offensive boards we needed in the second half."
On free throw struggles:
"We got to continue to work on it and we're traveling with our portable rim, we got it on the bus. We're going to work on that tomorrow in practice when we go to UAPB so got to get our shooting percentage better but we definitely got to get that free-throw percentage up and we're going to be successful."
Quoting junior forward Nyenkeer Malwal
How did that feel (scoring 26 points in 20 minutes off the bench)?:
"It felt pretty good, I was just very grateful to Coach Pruitt she had spoken to me before the game and told me what it was that she wanted. I'm just very grateful to have had that opportunity."
On taking advantage of opportunities:
"Before I got into the game I told myself all of the things that Coach Pruitt wants so I just ran that back over in my head so when I finally get that opportunity I go to work."
What is your role with this team?:
"Coming in from JUCO I was a big role player and I constantly had the ball in my hands so coming here was a bit of a change so I would say my role is to get rebounds and just put points up because everybody likes to score the ball. Her biggest thing is defense and wants me to get after the balls and work the paint to get all the rebounds."
On staying focused on UAPB Monday:
"Coach Pruitt tells us that we need to beat the teams we're supposed to beat but we need to put this game aside. I know it's a win but we need to look forward to Monday, I need to bring the same energy."
#FearTheBrave
