Late Surge Comes Up Short Against AAMU

LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program trailed by 16 entering the final frame and trimmed the deficit to one with just over a minute left but ultimately fell to the Lady Bulldogs, 74-67 at the Davey L. Whitney Complex on Saturday.

The Lady Braves (8-11, 4-3 SWAC) fell behind early and never led for the entirety of the contest as they had to climb out of numerous double-digit holes.

Alcorn had three players hit double-figure point totals as junior LaRae Rascoe led the way with 18 followed by senior Jada Hargrove (16) and junior Kirdis Clark (12).

Hargrove came one rebound short of her first career double-double, logging nine boards on the afternoon while making half of her shot attempts (6-for-12).

Rascoe pulled down a season-high six rebounds to go along with a team-high 4 assists.

Clark and sophomore Diamond Hall fronted the defensive effort with three steals while freshman Nia McCalphia tied her season-best in assists (3).

Alabama A&M (8-9, 4-2 SWAC) saw Dariauna Lewis become the first opposing player to drop 30-plus points on the Lady Braves since December 21, 2018 as she dropped 31 points on 11-of-15 (.733) shooting while grabbing eight rebounds and blocking three shots as well.

The Lady Bulldogs had two girls record five or more assists as Jameica Cobb topped the team with six and Deshawna Harper dished out five of her own. Cobb also led all participants with 11 boards.

AAMU jumped up early on the Lady Braves, accounting for the first eight points of the contest. Alcorn would cut the deficit to four (14-10) but ended the first frame trailing by ten (24-14).

Things looked on the verge of getting ugly in the beginning phases of the second period as the maroon and gray peeled off eight-in-a-row to soar in front, 32-14. The purple and gold surged back into the game however, putting together a run of ten points in 1:14 to close the gap to eight (32-24). The girls from Huntsville recollected themselves and outscored Alcorn 10-5 over the final six minutes and change to hold a 42-29 halftime lead.

Both teams traded buckets for the majority of the third with Alabama A&M taking a 16-point (60-44) advantage into the final frame.

The outlook for Coach Pruitt's bunch remained bleak as late as the 6:11 mark of the fourth quarter as AAMU was up 66-53 but the Lady Braves showed no quit. The Lady Braves awoke from their offensive slumber, storming all the way back with 12 unanswered to cut the lead to one with 2:04 remaining, much to the delight of the purple and gold clad fans on The Reservation. After both sides contributed two points apiece, Alabama A&M would record the final six points of the night to snag a victory on the road, snapping Alcorn's three-game winning streak by a final of 74-67.

Alcorn welcomes the Alabama State Lady Hornets to the Davey L. Whitney Complex Monday evening.
 
NOTES
- The Lady Braves fall to 28-17 all-time versus AAMU and have now lost four consecutive in the series.

- Alabama A&M won the battle in the paint (46-26) while nearly doubling up Alcorn off the bench (25-13).

- The purple and gold continues to record positive turnover margins (24-16) and in turn, had more points off of turnovers (23-20).

Quoting Alcorn head coach Courtney G. Pruitt
Opening statement:
"We just came out really sluggish and it hurt us not to have Cayla Obillo play her normal fire-flight defense and you're going to have injuries which really hurt us and we really struggled to get going in those first two quarters. I think in the third quarter we made some adjustments, we came out and we just locked them down and we were able to finally get the game in a winnable situation but we just couldn't hit the shots at the end. It was really heartbreaking but hats off to these young ladies, they really fought, they listened, they bought in so we just got to find a way to finish."
 
On the high-low game wearing the Lady Braves out:
"We just couldn't get our rotations defensively no matter who we subbed in to play post defense, we just couldn't get them going and we couldn't stop that action. We just got to go back and look at the film to make the adjustments. I thought in the fourth quarter when we did make the adjustments that we were able to pick it off at the high post and get some steals we just didn't convert when we should have. We did turn our defense into offense which we typically do, anytime you turn a team over 24 times and you shoot 73 percent from the free-throw line you're supposed to win that ballgame so it's very tough for us, we're a tough team, we got to keep our heads up, we got a lot to fight for which puts us at 4-3 in conference play so we got to keep pushing and get ready for a tough Alabama State team coming in here on Monday night."
 
On the challenge of trying to defend Alabama A&M's Dariauna Lewis in the low post:
"It was tough, she's a Missouri State transfer, she's great on posting up and they know how to find her plus she knows how to find the basket. She knows how to finish over the top, she's very strong and a veteran player so we expected that we just didn't do a very good job of staying on her and staying in front. We allowed her to catch it a few times on the ball reversal and that was something we went to sleep on but we made the adjustment on the high post so they could pass it in but then we couldn't convert on the offensive end so that's a tough break for us and sometimes during the games you'll have those breaks where you just can't get the ball to fall or you're trying too hard while failing to make the extra pass and being unselfish."

#FearTheBrave