Lady Braves Bow Out To AAMU In SWAC Quarterfinals

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program saw its season come to a disappointing end, falling to the Alabama A&M Lady Bulldogs in the SWAC Quarterfinals, 74-54.

The Lady Braves (13-18, 9-9 SWAC) more than tripled its win total from 2018-19 (4) and finished with the most wins in a campaign since the 2011-12 squad that won 14 games.

Junior Kirdis Clark guided the squad in both points (16) and rebounds (7) while hitting half of her shot attempts (5-for-10).

Freshman Cayla Obillo was the other Lady Braves to score in double-figures, logging ten points, three assists and two steals.

In her last appearance in the purple and gold, senior Jada Hargrove had a game-high give assists to go along with seven points and five boards.

Senior Toddriana Isler posted six points, four rebounds, an assist and a block while classmate Charisma Walker had three boards.

Alabama A&M (17-13, 12-6 SWAC) held Alcorn to its lowest steals total of the season (4) while committing the fewest turnovers (13) the swarming Lady Braves defense had given up in 2019-20.

The Lady Bulldogs had three of its starters score ten-plus points plus two more coming off the bench.

Dariauna Lewis topped the home team with 20 points, nine rebounds and two blocks to go along with making 66.7 percent from the floor plus going 8-for-10 from the charity stripe.

Je'Naiya Davis (14), Deshawna Harper (12), Ariana Powe (11) and Tierra Dark (10) capped off the double-digit scorers for the maroon and white.

Coach Pruitt's bunch started the evening with a 6-2 lead before disaster struck. The maroon and white caught fire while the Lady Braves could not buy a bucket for the remainder of the quarter as Alabama A&M ended the frame on a 21-2 scoring binge to stake a 23-8 advantage after one.

AAMU opened the second by extending its run to 27-2 including 11 unanswered split between the end of the first and beginning of the second to open the gap to 29-8. The purple and gold showed the fight its displayed all season long by battling back to within 13 (35-22) at the 1:33 mark but five straight Lady Bulldog points to end the half had the Lady Braves staring at a 40-23 hole at the half.

The girls from Huntsville kept the Lady Braves at a safe distance for the majority of the third quarter, holding a 20-point (52-32) edge with 2:48 to go. Nine consecutive points by the purple and gold gave Coach Pruitt's girls some life, getting it down to 52-41 before a tip-in by A&M made the score 54-41 after the third period of play.

Alcorn would trim the deficit down to nine twice and trailed by ten with 2:50 remaining. The Lady Braves could not get any closer as an 11-0 Alabama A&M run followed, dashing the purple and gold's dreams of dancing with a 74-54 opening round win.
 
NOTES

- Alcorn leads the all-time series 28-20 but Alabama A&M has now claimed six straight victories versus the Lady Braves.

- The Lady Bulldogs held a sizable margin in every major miscellaneous category; points off turnovers (22-10), second chance points (21-8), bench points (26-16) and points in the paint (32-18).
 
Quoting Alcorn head coach Courtney G. Pruitt
 
Overall statement about the game:
"The ladies really battled and fought hard tonight. We just dug ourselves into a hole too deep to climb out of tonight."
 
Looking back on the 2019-2020 season:
"The ladies battled and fought hard this season! With us only losing three seniors. We have a great team returning for next year."
 
#FearTheBrave