Alcorn Upends Tougaloo in Exhibition, 77-63

LORMAN, Miss. – Keondre Montgomery scored a game-high 20 points while Dontrell McQuarter added 13 points to help Alcorn Men's Basketball to a 77-63 exhibition game win over in-state opponent Tougaloo Thursday evening at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
 
Alcorn ran out to a quick 9-0 lead in the opening minutes of the first half behind the shooting of Trevin Wade and Jeremiah Kendall. However, the Bulldogs of Tougaloo would settle into the game moments later with a three-pointer from Trajan Fielder and a basket by Cameron Woodall.
 
A Fielder shot from beyond the arc – one of his game-high four on the evening, with 12:57 remaining in the opening half pulled the visitors to within 16-13 at that point.
 
The Braves would respond with a 5-0 run of their own, all by Devin Carter, to push the host's lead back out to 21-13 at the under-12 media timeout. That was quickly followed by an 11-4 Braves run that saw the Purple and Gold capture its largest lead of the first half at 34-19 with 3:51 remaining.
 
Key in the Alcorn run were Dontrell McQuarter and Keondre Montgomery.
 
A Montgomery layup with 46 seconds remaining put the Braves up 42-25, while a Tougaloo layup from DeArius Henyard – two of his seven points in the contest – cut the lead to 42-27 at the half in favor of Alcorn.
 
In the second half, the Alcorn lead would fall below double-digits just once following a fastbreak basket by the Bulldogs' Woodall that brought his side to within 42-33 with 18:09 remaining in the game.
 
Alcorn would respond in kind with an 11-0 run, sparked by five points from Montgomery and a jumper from Oddyst Walker. That would see Alcorn swell the lead to 54-36, respectfully.
 
Montgomery would shoot 2-for-5 from long range in the second half, scoring 13 points. McQuarter finished the second half with seven points and four rebounds while the Braves, as a team, shot 36.4 percent from the floor in the stanza.
 
Meanwhile, Tougaloo countered with 10 points each in the second half from Fielder and Darryl Jones, respectively. Woodall was a perfect 3-for-3 from the field in the final half for the Bulldogs.
 
Overall, Alcorn shot 39.7 percent from the field, while Tougaloo answered with a 41.5 percent average from the floor. The Bulldogs were 30.8 percent shooting from three-point range, while Fielder finished with a team-high 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting (4-of-8 from beyond the arc). The Bulldogs were 15-for-27 from the foul line.
 
Three other Bulldogs ended in double-digits as Antonio Patterson, Darryl Jones and Woodall had 10 points each for the visitors.
 
For the Braves, Montgomery had 20 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the floor, including three (3) three-pointers, adding 12 rebounds to complete his double-double performance. McQuarter finished with 13 points and six boards. Kendall added nine points for the Braves.
 
Alcorn begins the regular season Monday, Nov. 7, when the Braves travel to Southeastern Conference and in-state opponent Ole Miss at 8p.m.
 
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