Texas Southern Uses Offensive Explosion To Down Lady Braves

HOUSTON, Texas – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program had its highest scoring output of the season against a division one opponent but fell to the Lady Tigers, 105-70.

The Lady Braves (5-9, 1-1 SWAC) got double-digit point contributions from junior LaRae Rascoe (19), junior Kirdis Clark (15) and senior Jada Hargrove (11).

Rascoe has now scored double-figure points in four straight contests and nine of her last ten appearances while tying her season-best of seven field goals.

Clark tied her career-high in points and her season-best for field goals (5) on the evening.

Hargrove logged at least ten points for the ninth time on the campaign to go along with a .455 field goal percentage against TSU (5-of-11).

Senior Charisma Walker tied her season-high rebounding performance with a team-best seven boards while also contributing eight points.

Texas Southern (7-6, 2-0 SWAC) became the first club since Illinois in 2013 to reach the century mark against the Lady Braves and were just the third team this season to accumulate a positive turnover margin versus Coach Pruitt's bunch. TSU hit 11 three-pointers and made nearly 60 percent of its shots (35-for-59) to fuel the scoring barrage.

Preseason SWAC Player of the Year Niya Mitchell lived up to the billing, pouring in 22 points and 13 rebounds for a double-double performance including a game-high five steals and hitting nine of ten from the floor.

Richelle Velez was the game's leading scorer, erupting for 26 points and using seven triples to account for her eight made field goals.

Ciani Cryor was the third Lady Tiger to break the 20-point threshold at 22 and dished out a game-best eight assists and five steals.

The final player in maroon and gray to record double-digit points was Tamaria White who contributed 14 points and an additional five steals.

The home side came out red-hot to begin the game, posting 18 of the first 22 points to earn a 18-4 cushion right off the bat. The purple and gold were able to outscore TSU 12-10 through the remainder of the first quarter to cut the deficit to 12 at 28-16.

At the halfway point of the second quarter, Texas Southern had widened its advantage up to 22 points as it was ahead 42-20 right before the media timeout. The girls from Houston kept the heat on to end the half, leading 61-31 at halftime.

After the Lady Tigers went up 69-36, Alcorn went on a 19-4 rally to trim the gap to 18 points (73-55). TSU would tack on six points compared to the Lady Braves' two as they took a 79-57 upper-hand into the final frame.

The maroon and gray doubled up Coach Pruitt's crew in the fourth (26-13) as the Lady Braves fell to 1-1 in the conference, falling to Texas Southern by a score of 105-70.

Alcorn comes back to The Reservation on Saturday afternoon for its SWAC home opener against Jackson State at 3 p.m. inside the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
 
NOTES
- Despite falling, the Lady Braves still have a sizable lead in the all-time series (55-24).

- Texas Southern was better in most of the miscellaneous categories such as points off turnovers (40-25), bench points (29-25) and points in the paint (42-36).
 
Quoting Alcorn head coach Courtney G. Pruitt
 
Opening statement:
"We couldn't get anything going with our defense, defense is our identity so that was very disappointing. Transition defense was horrible, half-court defense was horrible, we just couldn't get it going with our defense and then on top of that we were getting wide open looks at the basket, we were getting to the basket but we just missed to many chip shots. It's a matter of mental toughness and our finishing around the cup but hats off to Texas Southern, they're a great team but I don't feel like they were 30 points better than us, I know there weren't. We just got to go back home and regroup to be ready for Jackson State on Saturday."
 
On TSU's Richelle Velez's performance:
"She was 6-of-10 and shot 60 percent from the three-point line. The thing about it is that we went over that and watched that on film, we were prepared for all bases but we didn't capitalize and carry over what we watched in film and did in our scouting report which was very disappointing. Got to go back to the film and regroup but we knew what we were getting into and what to expect, we just didn't execute well enough on defense."
 
On cutting the deficit from 30 to 17 in the third quarter:
"We changed our defense up a little bit and went to a full-court man defense where we could get some turnovers and we were able to make some shots during that time. They shot 59 percent from the floor and we only shot 38 percent then we couldn't shoot our threes, we shot 60 percent from the three-point line on Saturday then we shot 63 percent from the free-throw line. All-around we just couldn't shoot the ball well tonight and sometimes you just have those nights where you're cold and can't find the basket so we got to regroup and got to get ready."

#FearTheBrave