Diamond Hall Records Double-Double In Loss To Grambling

GRAMBLING, La. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program got a double-double by sophomore Diamond Hall (10 points, 12 rebounds) and 21 points out of junior LaRae Rascoe in a 70-59 loss to the Lady Tigers.

The Lady Braves (9-14, 5-6 SWAC) logged its largest rebounding advantage of the 2019-20 season, winning the boards battle by 13 (38-25) and grabbing 17 offensive rebounds.

Rascoe did her best to carry Alcorn back into the ballgame as her 21 points all came in the second half. It was her third 20-plus scoring outing of the year and she converted on 7-of-9 shots (.778).

Hall notched her second double-double of the campaign and third of her career when she posted 12 rebounds to go along with 10 points against the Lady Tigers.

Grambling State (3-19, 2-9 SWAC) used a huge first half to bury the purple and gold, putting them in a 19-point hole that they just could not quite dig themselves out of.

Mylashia Yancy fell just shy of a double-double of her own, putting together 12 points and nine boards.

Justice Coleman stuffed the stat sheet for the Lady Tigers, recording a team-high 13 points and six assists as well as six rebounds and three steals.

GSU started off the night lighting up the scoreboard from behind the arc, going 3-of-4 on three-point attempts to stake a 13-10 upper-hand at the opening media timeout. A 9-2 Grambling run to end the quarter extended the Lady Tigers lead to 22-12 after ten minutes of action.

The Lady Tigers scored the first six points of the second period and eight of the first ten to move ahead by 16, 30-14. The home squad in pink upped its advantage to 19 at the half, 38-19. Alcorn aided Grambling with a poor first half of shooting, going 8-of-34 from the field (.235).

The Grambling girls kept the pressure on, upping the margin to 46-22 with 7:44 to go in the third quarter. The purple and gold fought back with a vengeance, scoring 19 of the next 25 to close the gap to 52-41 heading into the fourth.

The furious comeback continued into the final frame, storming back to within six at the media break (55-49). The visitors from Lorman stayed within striking distance, trailing 61-53 when the Lady Tigers called timeout at the 3:11 mark. Grambling State staved off the purple and gold to claim a 70-59 win.

Coach Pruitt's crew will return home for the first time in nearly three weeks when the Lady Braves host Mississippi Valley State on Friday at 3 p.m. inside the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
 
NOTES
- Grambling State now holds the edge all-time (51-50) after splitting the season series.

- Alcorn lost the turnover battle for the second straight game, falling to 0-5 when the margin is not in their favor.

- The Lady Braves dominated off the bench (31-15) and in second chance opportunities (18-7).
 
Quoting Alcorn assistant coach Mike Pittman
 
On getting off to a rough start on the road:
"First of all let me say congratulations to Coach Murray and the Grambling State Lady Tigers, they deserved to win tonight. I would be remiss if I didn't do that upfront, it was important that we got off to a fast start because if we didn't we knew that Grambling was going to come ready to play and unfortunately we did not do that tonight. It was a disappointing loss for us, I'm proud of the way we fought in the second half but we can't continue to have those rough starts. We've tried different lineups, we tried everything to try and right the ship but the coaches are going to look over things tomorrow, the girls will have a day off and then we'll get ready for this weekend."
 
On everything that could go wrong, going wrong in the first half:
"The unfortunate thing is when we miss those point-blank buckets, it kind of took the air out of us because Coach Pruitt would draw up the play, it works to perfection and it looked like we were shooting on the rims at the state fair to try to knock the teddy bear off of them. That was really disappointing that the game plan was in place and the shots that we had we could not finish them."
 
On LaRae Rascoe's 21-point second half:
"We try to get her in some type of rhythm and one thing that we've learned as we get into SWAC play is that there are some games, depending on how we feel and matchups, we try to put her in a t a time where she can be LaRae. At the beginning of some games she gets off to a good start but depending on the personnel of the opposition, she can provide a spark."
 
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