LORMAN, Miss. – A strong defensive effort resulted in a 60-52 victory for the Alcorn State University men's basketball program over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Monday at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
The 52 points were the fewest allowed by the Braves (12-12, 8-5 SWAC) in a game this year.
Alcorn led for nearly the entire game and limited UAPB (3-22, 2-11 SWAC) to a .375 shooting mark including 3-of-19 (.158) from long-range.
The Braves were paced by senior
Deshaw Andrews who submitted 17 points, six rebounds and matched his career-high with four steals. He was 6-of-9 from the floor and 3-of-4 from beyond-the-arc.
Senior
Maurice Howard ended with 13 points and six assists. Senior
Corey Tillery tallied eight points and a team-high eight rebounds.
The Golden Lions garnered a double-double of 16 points and 14 rebounds from Terrance Banyard. Zavian Jackson scored 11 points off the bench.
UAPB's only lead of the game came on the very first bucket. Alcorn answered with an 8-0 run which included a pair of baskets by senior
Troymain Crosby to lead 8-2 with 16:03 left.
After UAPB cut the deficit to 13-9, Alcorn responded with a 13-2 run which included threes by Tillery and freshman
Dominic Brewton to make it a 26-11 game with 8:40 to go. The largest lead of the half, 31-13 came on a pair of free throws by junior
Kobe Wilson with 5:59 remaining. The Braves were ahead 35-21 at the intermission.
In the second half, senior
Alonzo Campbell backed in his defender for a lay-in to put Alcorn up 42-24 at the 17:38 mark.
The Golden Lions went on a 7-0 run to get back in it around the midway point and trailed 45-35. Though, the Braves punched back with a 9-0 run to get their advantage back up to 56-38 on a three-pointer by Howard with 7:42 left.
UAPB made one last push late. An 8-0 spurt changed the score to 56-46 with 5:00 remaining, and a three-pointer by Markedric Bell had the Golden Lions down just 58-52 with 46 seconds to go. However, UAPB had to foul and Howard made a pair of free throws, which was followed up with defensive stops to end the game.
The Braves will hit the road Saturday at 5:30 p.m. when they face Alabama A&M. Alcorn beat AAMU 59-58 in the first meeting this year in Lorman. The Braves are 24-20 all-time against the Bulldogs and 8-1 under head coach
Montez Robinson.
NOTES
- The Braves have won 11 of the last 12, and 15 of the last 17 home games at the Davey L. Whitney Complex. Alcorn has outscored the opposition 859-651 at home this year.
- Alcorn improved to 44-24 all-time against UAPB and 8-2 under Robinson.
- Robinson is in his fifth season at the helm. He carries a 47-38 SWAC record.
- The Braves are now 10-0 (6-0 SWAC) on the season when leading at halftime.
- Andrews led Alcorn in scoring in both games against UAPB this year. He notched a career-high 30 points in the first meeting and went on to win SWAC Player of the Week.
- Andrews posted his 29th career double-figure scoring game and 17th this season. He's now shooting .485 (50-of-103) from three-point range on the year.
- Howard registered his 61st career double-figure scoring game and 17th this year. With six assists, he's up to 315 in his career which is top-five all-time in Alcorn history.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Montez Robinson
Opening Statement
"I thought we really had a chance to put this game away a few times in the second half but we started taking uncharacteristic shots. Instead of just letting the offense flow, we were doing things out of character. This wasn't our best game and they outrebounded us, but we'll take the win. UAPB is well-coached and they made a lot of adjustments from the first game. We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball and making free throws. We had three 80 percent free throw shooters miss free throws tonight."
On trying to get the offense going
"We had some wide-open looks that we missed. We had guys who were off from the free throw line tonight and also off from three. We were way below our percentages tonight, but shouldn't have been with the looks that we had."
On Deshaw Andrews
"We're watching his minutes closely and trying to keep him around 25 minutes per game. He played 22 minutes tonight, and the last time we play UAPB he played 22 minutes but also had 30 points. We're trying to keep him as fresh as we can on the floor."
#FearTheBrave
