Hot Shooting Lady Hornets Down Lady Braves

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program fell victim to a Alabama State squad who could not miss for the majority of the night, losing 95-70.

The Lady Braves (11-16, 7-8 SWAC) tied for its most three-pointers made on the campaign and most in conference play, converting 9-of-25 (.360).

Freshman Cayla Obillo set a new season-high, fronting the purple and gold with 17 points including four three-pointers.

Senior Jada Hargrove had her best scoring night in a month, accumulating 16 points plus a team-best three steals.

Junior Kirdis Clark topped the squad with eight rebounds.

Alabama State (8-17, 5-9 SWAC) scored the second-most points on the Lady Braves this season while swishing nearly half of its field goal attempts (26-for-53, .491).

Aniyah Smith put together a double-double for the Lady Hornets, posting 17 points and grabbing a game-high 12 boards.

The home squad also benefitted from two players contributing 20-plus points as Hannah White dropped 26 off the bench while Jayla Crawford had 20.

Diamond Hall opened up the evening with a layup but Alabama State came back with 11 unanswered to claim an 11-2 lead. The black and gold kept the heat on, building its lead to 14 at the end of the quarter as the scoreboard read 20-6 Lady Hornets.

The home squad from Montgomery kept piling up the points, scoring the first eight points of the second until Kirdis Clark's triple stopped the bleeding (28-9). Alcorn fought back to cut the lead down to 14 (35-21) and ultimately settled on a 15-point deficit at the half.

Each team received an offensive uptick in the third quarter, combining for 52 points with Alabama State winning the frame (29-23) and taking a 71-50 upper-hand into the final ten minutes of regulation.

The black and gold put the game into cruise control in the fourth quarter, winning by a final margin of 95-70.

The Lady Braves will head back to Lorman to conclude the regular season with a three-game homestand beginning with Southern on Saturday at 3 p.m. inside the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
 
NOTES

- The Lady Braves fell to 60-30 all-time versus Alabama State. The two sides split the season series.

- Alabama State attempted and made the most free throws in a game against Alcorn since Prairie View A&M went 33-for-42 from the charity stripe in March of 2018.

- The black and gold dominated off the bench (51-27) and their second chances (20-6).
 
Quoting Alcorn head coach Courtney G. Pruitt
 
Overall Statement:
"I thought we just didn't get going offensively, we dug ourselves an early hole as we were down 20-6 in the first quarter then our shooting decisions were just poor. We only shot above 40 percent in one quarter which was the third, I felt like once we were able to get going, we had great production and a great fourth quarter, playing well in transition which is our brand of basketball but in the early going we got into early foul trouble and we were subbing as fast as we can to stop the bleeding but it really hurt us that we weren't scoring as well as we were turning over Alabama State."
 
On recent first quarter struggles:
"It's so frustrating as a coach when you're on the sideline and doing everything you can as far as putting your subs in and scorers in to try to find the right combination in order for the team to be successful. I was throwing everything I had, running all the offenses and even putting in new offenses so that we can try to get a spark offensively and get our team to score the basketball."
 
On Cayla Obillo's season-high 17 points:
"Cayla never stopped playing, she played hard and was able to get some threes going on Saturday night which carried over into today and she led us, even though we were down she kept fighting and leading us on."
 
#FearTheBrave