Braves Knock Off Texas Southern for Huge Road Win 95-80

HOUSTON – Career nights from seniors Maurice Howard and Corey Tillery led to a 95-80 victory for the Alcorn State University men's basketball program over Texas Southern on Monday at H&PE Arena.
 
The Braves (5-8, 1-1 SWAC) were feeling it all night and shot 17-for-28 (.607) from three-point range. They also posted a season-high .923 (24-26) mark from the free throw line.
 
Howard ended with a career-high 31 points including 5-for-8 from three and 14-for-15 from the free throw line. Howard's 14 free throws made were the third-most all-time in school history in a single-game. The record is 16 by Eddie Archie on Jan. 28, 1982 against North Texas.
 
Tillery also had a hot hand with a career-high 26 points. He was a scorching hot 8-for-11 from long distance.
 
Also in double-figures for Alcorn were senior Deshaw Andrews and junior Troymain Crosby. Andrews finished with 17 points and six rebounds, while Crosby registered 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
 
Alcorn got it done on both ends of the floor as its defense limited TSU (4-11, 1-1 SWAC) to a .338 (25-74) shooting night, including .323 (10-31) from beyond-the-arc. The Tigers were paced by Bryson Etienne's 20 points.
 
Junior Kobe Wilson swatted away a career-high five blocks. It was one shy of the single-game school record. He also grabbed seven rebounds.
 
Alcorn actually started the game slow and fell behind by nine early. The Braves trailed 15-6 when a three-pointer by Andrews sparked a 9-0 run to tie it 15-15 at the 10:30 mark. Alcorn took the lead 23-22 on a long-range shot by Howard with 8:26 left.
 
With the game even 28-28, the Braves used a 5-0 spurt to take a 33-28 edge after another three by Howard with 4:32 to go. Alcorn kept firing away, and two more deep shots by Tillery and Howard extended the advantage to 39-30 with 3:40 remaining.
 
TSU scored the final bucket of the half on a tip-in, but the Braves led 42-36 at the break.
 
Alcorn came out hot early in the second, and a three-pointer and mid-range jumper by Tillery made it a 49-38 game at the 17:26 mark. An old-fashion three-point play by Crosby kept the Braves ahead 54-42 with 15:03 left.
 
Alcorn extended the lead to 62-44 after Crosby and Andrews swished back-to-back threes at the 13:19 mark. A pair of free throws by Crosby put the Braves up by 20, 67-47 with 11:52 to go.
 
The Tigers responded with a quick 7-0 run to cut it to 67-54 with 10:35 remaining. Though, the Braves answered with a pair of threes by Tillery to push the lead back up to 76-58 with 8:30 left. Another three by Tillery gave Alcorn its largest lead of the game 81-60 at the 5:04 mark.
 
TSU made a comeback attempt late by forcing turnovers and capitalizing on them with buckets. After a 14-0 run, the Tigers trimmed the deficit to 81-74 with 2:18 remaining.
 
Still, TSU was forced to foul and Howard knocked down 14 consecutive free throws in the final 2:13 to close it out and keep Alcorn in front.
 
The Braves will play their first conference home game Saturday when they host Jackson State at 5:30 p.m. at the Davey L. Whitney Complex. The two teams are tied 58-58 all-time against each other. Alcorn is 4-4 against JSU under head coach Montez Robinson.
 
NOTES
- Alcorn recorded its first win over Texas Southern since 2007-08 to end a streak of 25 consecutive defeats.
 
- The Braves submitted their first road victory since Feb. 17, 2018 to snap a string of 24 straight road defeats.
 
- Alcorn outscored TSU 53-44 in the second half and the 53 points were the most scored by the team in a half this season. The Braves have been a second half team all year and have outscored the opposition 520-468 in the second.
 
- Robinson improved his career SWAC record to 40-34. He's in his fifth season.
 
- The Braves entered the game leading the conference in three-point percentage (.370), three-pointers made per game (9.8) and free throw percentage (.724). They'll improve on all tallies with their .607 three percentage, 17 threes made and .923 free throw percentage.
 
- Howard's previous career-high was 27 points against Southern on Feb. 2, 2019. It was the third time he scored more than 25 points and the 11th time he was above 20 points. Howard notched his 53rd career double-figure scoring game and ninth in a row.
 
- Tillery topped his previous career-high of 21 points at Tulane on Dec. 16, 2019. He posted his 10th double-digit scoring game and sixth in a row.
 
- Andrews submitted his 21st career double-figure scoring game and ninth this season. He only played 14 minutes due to foul trouble, but was 5-for-11 from the field.
 
- Crosby etched his 35th career double-digit scoring outing and eighth this year. He also helped on the glass with eight rebounds.
 
Quoting Alcorn head coach Montez Robinson
Opening Statement
"The second half of the Prairie View game carried over into tonight. I thought we were very focused at practice yesterday and the same thing at shootaround again this morning. We knew we needed to bounce back and we followed the game plan. One of our goals coming into tonight was to win the rebounding battle and we did that. Our guys just played together tonight and never got down, even when Texas Southern went on runs. Kobe Wilson had a great night with seven rebounds and five blocks – he was in there working for us in the paint defensively. Then, you have to look at what Corey Tillery and Maurice Howard did tonight and the way they shot the ball. We guarded well and shot the ball well."
 
On how big of a win it was
"It was really big, but these are the expectations we have for this team. We know we have a good shooting team. It makes it hard for other teams to key-in on stopping one guy when we have three or four that shoot it really well. We have to be able to sustain this effort and keep playing the way we did tonight. I credit our guys for not getting rattled and staying the course."
 
On withstanding TSU's late run
"We stopped taking the open shots that we were making. We wanted to milk the clock and take the shot clock down, but at the same time if we have wide-open shots then we have to keep taking them. We kept pulling it back when we should have taken the lay-ups or open looks, but fortunately we were up large enough where they had to foul us. Maurice is a 90 percent free throw shooter and he proved tonight that you can't foul him."
 
On Maurice Howard's 31 points
"He did a great job, but it was really all of our shooters. We want to have four of our five starters score in double-figures every night and we did that tonight. We did a great job of taking what the defense gave us and finding the open guy. We kept riding the hot hands."
 
On the defensive effort
"We stayed active and aggressive on the defensive end. The guys were locked in on the scouting report. We tried to take away their shooters and did a great job of that. We stayed resilient and the guys did a great job of staying focused."
 
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