Women's Basketball | 3/9/2020 11:04:00 AM

Lady Braves Travel To Alabama A&M For SWAC Quarterfinals

LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University women's basketball program will look to avenge its two regular season losses and earn a trip to Birmingham when it clashes with the Alabama A&M Lady Bulldogs on Tuesday at 6 p.m. inside T.M. Elmore Gymnasium.

The fifth-seeded Lady Braves (13-19, 9-9 SWAC) last appeared in the SWAC Tournament at the end of the 2017-18 season, losing as the sixth seed in the first round to third seed Grambling State, 80-71. Alcorn has claimed six SWAC Tournament Championships with its most recent championship being in 2004-05.

Only two current Lady Braves players were a part of the last conference tournament team as senior Jada Hargrove and junior Jamaysha Bernard combined for 33 minutes, five rebounds and four points in the defeat to GSU.

The last time the Lady Braves and Lady Bulldogs squared off in the SWAC Tournament was following the 2013-14 regular season with Alabama A&M prevailing on a neutral site in Houston, 64-62.

The Lady Braves have led the nation in steals (429), steals per game (14.3) and turnovers forced (26.57) since November 26, 2019 and have not relinquished that crown since. The purple and gold also hold a top-20 ranking for turnover margin (5.60). Coach Pruitt's crew places inside the top-three in the SWAC for assists (370), offensive rebounds per game (14.6), rebounds (1079) and three-point field goal defense (29.6).

The trio of Jada Hargrove, junior LaRae Rascoe, and sophomore Diamond Hall all rank inside the SWAC's top-six in steals and steals per game. All three rank inside the nation's top-55 in both categories.

Hargrove has recorded 15 double-figure scoring performances and is contributing 9.3 points per night. Hargrove holds the team lead at 60 assists, swiped 69 steals (top-40 in NCAA) through 30 games and was third in rebounds with 107 (3.6 a night).

Hall fronts the squad in the rebounding department, totaling 158 (seventh in SWAC) through 30 games for an average of 5.3 boards a night, both team-bests. The sophomore also led the Lady Braves with 70 steals (top-40 in NCAA), fronting the nation's number one ranked defense. She turned her game up a notch all-around in conference, averaging a squad-high 6.6 rebounds plus 7.7 points and 1.8 assists.

Rascoe notched 18 double-digit scoring nights during the regular season while averaging a team-high 11.1 points a contest. The Indianapolis native tallied 66 steals (2.36 per game) and 35 three-pointers (eighth in SWAC) as well as 51 assists. In 17 conference games, she accumulated 10.7 points a game with a 39 steals, 33 assists and 20 three-pointers.

Junior Kirdis Clark was the most consistent Lady Brave during SWAC play, averaging a team-best 11.4 points per contest while making 42.6 percent of her shots and swiping 30 steals. Over the course of the season, 11 of her 12 double-figure scoring performances came in conference as well.

"We've been playing well to finish the season and we are working to get to Birmingham this weekend," said head coach Courtney G. Pruitt. "We know Alabama A&M is a tough matchup because of their play inside but we know we can tough it out."

Fourth-seeded Alabama A&M (16-13, 12-6 SWAC) ended the season a strong note, beating Grambling State on Thursday before toppling the number one seeded Jackson State Lady Tigers in the regular season finale on Saturday.

Tuesday's contest will be a battle of strengths as Alcorn's defense faces the least turnover-prone team in the conference, as AAMU fronts the SWAC in assist-to-turnover ratio (0.75), fewest turnovers (478) and fewest turnovers per game (16.5).

The Lady Bulldogs live and die with their superstar sophomore Dariauna Lewis. Lewis has the third-best field goal percentage in the nation at 65.2 percent, is top-30 in free throws made (132) and ranks third or better in the conference for blocks (48), points per game (16.7) and rebounds per game (9.2).

Deshawna Harper is the club's sharpshooter from deep, averaging 1.86 triples per game to place second in the league.

The maroon and white claim two the SWAC's top-five players in assist-to-turnover ratio as Jameica Cobb (1.38) and Nigeria Jones (1.27) rank third and fifth, respectively.

NOTES

- Alcorn will face Alabama A&M for the 47th time in program history with the Lady Braves holding a 28-19 edge. AAMU has won five straight matchups in the series, sweeping the regular season series.

- The Lady Braves have more than tripled its win total from 2018-19 (4), have the most wins in a campaign (13) since 2011-12 and have the most wins in conference play (9) since 2016-17.

- Kirdis Clark was named SWAC Player of the Week on January 21, becoming the second Lady Brave to win the award this season. She won the honor after racking up a career-high 23 points and nine field goals in a comeback win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1/20) with 17 of those points coming in the second half. In the two games that weekend at UAPB and MVSU, she averaged 19 points, four rebounds, two steals and an assist per contest while shooting .682 (15-for-22).

- LaRae Rascoe was named SWAC Player of the Week on December 12, becoming the first Lady Brave to win the award since Alexus Freeman on January 23, 2018. She earned the accolade after having a monster game versus Florida A&M (12/8), coming off the bench to score a season-high 19 points in only 22 minutes of action while draining 7-of-12 (.583) from the floor. The guard also made five free throws to go along with a rebound, steal and an assist in the victory.

- Diamond Hall has recorded two of the team's four double-doubles of the season, both versus Grambling State, and was one assist shy of the first triple-double the program has had since at least the 2012-13 campaign in the first meeting. Toddriana Isler has the squad's other two double-doubles, recording one versus Arkansas-Pine Bluff and the other on Senior Night against Texas Southern.

- Pruitt revamped her coaching staff for 2019-20 with the additions of Andre Payne and Mike Pittman. Payne last served as Mississippi Valley State's Men's Basketball Head Coach where he made four SWAC Tournaments and coached two All-SWAC performers. Pittman spent last season at Paul Quinn and led the Lady Tigers to the USCAA Final Four. Also on staff is student assistant De'Asia Brown. She led Alcorn in points per game (12.3) and three-pointers (38) last season.

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