Alcorn Uses Fourth Quarter Rally, Last Second Stop, For Road Win At UAPB

PINE BLUFF, Ark. – Leading 77-75, the Alcorn State University women's basketball program got a stop in the end to defeat Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Monday at H.O. Clemmons Arena.

Career-highs from junior Kirdis Clark and sophomore Diamond Hall extended Alcorn's winning streak to three games including a pair on the road.

The Lady Braves' (8-10, 4-2 SWAC) trailed the Lady Lions 67-61 heading into the final frame, but Alcorn doubled up UAPB (16-8) and made the critical defensive stop as time expired to pull out the win.

The purple and gold did not toss up many three-point attempts but they made their chances count, sinking 5-of-7 (.714) on the evening.

Clark was borderline unstoppable in the second half as she took over the contest with 19 of her career-best 23 points came following the halftime break. The native of Natchez, Missisisppi was a scalding 9-of-12 (.750) from the floor and also accounted for four rebounds and three assists.

Hall was the driving force to the purple and gold's offense in the first half, racking up 17 of a career-high 22 points over the opening 20 minutes of action. She became the first Lady Brave to play the entire 40 minutes this season and came up one rebound shy of her second double-double of 2019-20 campaign.

Junior LaRae Rascoe stood out on the defensive end of the court for the purple and gold, swiping a career-best six steals to along with a team-high four assists.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff (3-12, 2-3 SWAC) had four Lady Lions post double-figure scoring nights as Kyeonia Harris led the charge with 20 points, followed by Noe'll Taylor (16), Aiya El Hassan (12) and Jayla Atmore (10).

Taylor was the black and gold's top rebounder with eight boards to go with a team-best four steals. El Hassan dished out a game-high five assists.

After allowing the opening bucket to UAPB, Alcorn would respond with seven unanswered to make it 7-2. The Lady Lions came roaring back with a 14-5 rally to go ahead 16-12 with just under three minutes remaining. Both sides were split almost identically the rest of the frame as Arkansas-Pine Bluff had the lead at the end of the first 23-20.

The second quarter saw a slight Alcorn surge to knot the score at 30-all at the halfway point. The Lady Braves and Lady Lions would come alive from there, as UAPB outscored Alcorn 14-13 to take a microscopic 44-43 advantage into the half.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff came out of the locker rooms ready to play, knocking down the first three shots of the third period to extend its margin to seven (50-43). Alcorn would trim the deficit to 56-53 before UAPB tried to pull away with an eight-point edge (63-55). The black and gold would hold a six-point advantage into the final frame with a score of 67-61.

Coach Pruitt's girls began the fourth quarter on an absolute tear, accumulating 14 of the first 16 points to blitz the Lady Lions and dig the home team a seven-point hole with 3:47 left in regulation, 76-69. UAPB would cut the lead to two following a Jayla Atmore jumper in the paint at 2:14 but that would be the final points of the night for either squad as senior Charisma Walker contested a runner in the lane with five seconds left and the Lady Braves recovered the ensuing rebound to seal a big road victory, 77-75.

The Lady Braves will open up a two-game homestand with the Alabama schools, beginning with Alabama A&M at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
 
NOTES
- Alcorn improved to 37-14 all-time against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and have now won three games in a row for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

- The Lady Braves topped 15 steals for the seventh time and are currently 5-2 when reaching that benchmark this year.

- The visitors from Lorman won the battle in the paint (42-36) and are undefeated in eight contests (four SWAC games) when scoring more in that category.

Quoting Alcorn head coach Courtney G. Pruitt
 
Opening statement:
"It was stressful, I don't like those kind of games, they make my heart dash. I'm happy we got the win, I'm proud of the way the ladies were resilient in the fourth quarter. Diamond Hall played her butt off, Kirdis Clark did a great job and she's really stepped up for us over these last few basketball games so I couldn't be prouder of Kirdis. We get to go back home smiling and relaxing."
 
On committing way too many turnovers:
"Usually we are the ones who turn people over but that time we had our quota that we wanted to have which was 28 turnovers, we wanted to get more than that. We started off the third quarter with a big turnover but we got going in the fourth quarter and we were able to take care of the ball, run some good offense, got some great shots off and just make some things happen so we were able to take care of it but its just frustrating in the end."
 
On UAPB being able to score 75 points on our defense:
"Hats off to Coach Brown, she really coached her tail off and they were ready for us. They studied us, they had a great game plan, they pressured us for the entire game and just like Valley did they saw the holes that we had when they put the 1-2-2 press on, they did their job executing that press and we weren't using our speed and athleticism to just go to the basket so we just took the stop and it worked perfectly."
 
Junior guard Kirdis Clark
 
On the comeback victory:
"The whole game our entire team had a lot of energy going and being the person that I am, I thought to myself 'if we can keep this thing going, we're only down by nine and going into the fourth quarter we need to give everything we have and just go win this game."
 
On coming out flat at the start of the game:
"If we don't get a start on the defensive end, our offensive end will kind of struggle so we came out sluggish and UAPB did a great job with their energy coming out and maintained it the whole game, at the end we were able to pull it off."
 
On the final defensive stop:
"Last year we were in the same situation and number one actually took the shot on me so when she came down all I could think about was 'do I need to go down and make this shot?' and I ended up tipping the ball and Diamond [Hall] ended up securing the ball. We're a defensive team and if we have to go through them, we will get a stop at the end."

#FearTheBrave