NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Coming off the most high-profile victory in the
Landon Bussie coaching era, the Alcorn Braves Men's Basketball (1-1) team is back in the south and heading to Nacogdoches, Texas for a Tuesday, Nov. 15 road contest at Stephen F. Austin (2-0). The Braves and Lumberjacks will square off at the William R. Johnson Coliseum with a 6:30 p.m. tip-off broadcasted on ESPN+.
THE GAME: Alcorn State Braves (1-1) at Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks (2-0)
WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 6:30 p.m. CT
WHERE: William R. Johnson Coliseum (Nacogdoches, Texas)
TICKETS: $13 - $23
LIVE STATS: SFA Athletics
LISTEN LIVE: WPRL 91.7 FM / Tune In (Alcorn)
WATCH LIVE VIDEO: Broadcast on ESPN+ ($6.99/month or $69.99/year)
IN THE RANKINGS
Alcorn is not ranked in the latest Associated Press or USA TODAY Coaches Poll Top 25 poll. Stephen F. Austin is not ranked in the latest Associated Press or USA TODAY Coaches Poll Top 25 poll. Neither team received any votes in these preseason polls. Receiving two (2) No. 1 picks, Alcorn was picked No. 2 in Preseason Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Predicted Order of Finish. Despite this being the second season in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) for Stephen F. Austin, the Lumberjacks were picked at No. 3 of 13 WAC teams in the WAC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Keep up with everything Alcorn Men's Basketball this year by following the Braves' hoops social media platforms. You can follow
@BravesMBB on Instagram and
@Alcorn_St_MBB on Twitter.
SERIES VS. STEPHEN F. AUSTIN
This is only the fourth meeting between the Braves and Lumberjacks and SFA leads the series, 3-0. These teams were scheduled to meet in 2020-21 in December, but the contest was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. The last meeting was during the 2005-06 season, with SFA claiming a 75-57 win.
LAST TIME OUT FOR THESE TEAMS
ALC
SHOCKED! The Braves are on a high right now after taking charge in the second half at Wichita State's Charles Koch Arena, pulling away in the final nine minutes for a 66-57 victory; debatably one of the most high-profile wins in program history.
Former Wichita State – by way of Eastern Kentucky – graduate student guard
Trevin Wade was just what the doctor ordered for the Braves in the first half, scoring 10 of his 14 points in the opening period to help Alcorn remain tight with the Shockers going into the break.
In the second half, the cavalry arrived as sophomore guard
Dominic Brewton went 5-for-7 after halftime, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the second.
Keondre Montgomery also joined in the scoring party, logging 9 of his 11 in the second frame. After battling from behind in the second half, the Braves started to make their move swiftly in the final nine minutes. A
Shaun Walker putback brought the deficit to 46-45 and he later pulled up at the stripe for the go-ahead bucket with 8:27 remaining – finding the open seam off a Wade assist to take the lead for good. A
Jeremiah Kendall fast-break layup and a pull-up three for
Byron Joshua maintained the momentum, while a Montgomery dunk with :40 on the clock all but sealed the game in the 66-57 win.
On the year, Alcorn is shooting .411 as a team through games at Ole Miss and Wichita State, averaging 7.0 three-pointers per game on .411 shooting behind the arc. With an aggressive pressuring defense, they've logged 18 steals off 28 opponent turnovers, converting for 23 points off turnovers.
SFA
As for the Lumberjacks, Stephen F. Austin was in a dogfight with Gardner-Webb from the opening tip last time out, with eight lead changes and three ties – until they aggressively took the upper hand with quick baskets in the first half by capitalizing on just two minutes of G-W scoring drought with a flurry of scores in the paint for an eight-point advantage. The Bulldogs chipped away, but went into the break trailing 45-37. SFA built a healthier lead in the first five minutes of the second, fending off threats to their double-digit advantage until the 7:03 mark. A Latrell Jossell three at that moment sparked a 13-3 scoring run that included long-rangers from Jossell, Roti Ware and Jaylin Jackson-Posey, changing the face of the game in only two minutes by growing their lead to 21. Gardner-Webb scratched at the lead, but the game closed out in an 86-71 SFA win.
Stephen F. Austin shot 49.2 percent and hit 50 percent from long range. Racking up an astounding 13-for-14 at the free throw line, locally-raised junior forward Nana Antwi-Boasiako topped the 'Jacks with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Ware went 3-for-5 from the arc and scored 16 with 6 rebounds and 5 assists, while Jossell scored 13 on 5-of-9 shooting.
Turnovers were a huge contributor, as SFA forced Gardner-Webb into 19 turnovers and produced 24 points off the possession changes. The Lumberjacks also hit the offensive glass hard, grabbing 16 of their 34 rebounds on offensive boards – racking up 17 second-chance points.
Thus far, five SFA players have averaged double figures and defensively they are early-season ballhawks, with 51 opponent turnovers (28 steals) through two outings – resulting in 62 points off turnovers. SFA is shooting .512 as a team and .464 from long range.
LAST SEASON FOR THESE TEAMS
Alcorn completed the 2021-22 season as the SWAC Regular Season Champion with a 17-17 overall record and 14-4 SWAC mark, reaching the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) for the third time (previously 1979 & 1985). The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks were 22-10 last season with a 14-4 record in their first season in the WAC; winning the WAC Regular Season Championship. Bumped out early in the WAC tournament, SFA finished the campaign with a berth in the College Basketball Invitational.
Alcorn Head Coach
Landon Bussie is in his third season and has a record of 24-31 with the Braves (24-31 career). Stephen F. Austin Head Coach Kyle Keller is in his seventh season and has a record of 68-55 with the Lumberjacks due to previously vacated wins.
KEY PLAYERS TO WATCH FOR THESE TEAMS
Alcorn
Grad Guard
Trevin Wade: 14.0 ppg, 2 stl, 2 ast, .556 FG%
Soph. Guard
Dominic Brewton: 12.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 3.0 apg, 1.0 spg, .414 FG%
r-Soph. Forward
Keondre Montgomery: 12.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.5 spg, .471 FG%
Soph. Guard
Byron Joshua: 11.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 4.0 apg, 2.0 spg, .389 FG%
Stephen F. Austin
Jr. Forward Nana Antwi-Boasiako: 17.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 2.0 bpg, 2.0 apg, 1.0 spg, .667 FG%
Soph. Forward Sadaidriene Hall: 16.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 4.5 apg, 4.0 spg, 1.0 bpg, .538 FG%
Soph. Guard Latrell Jossell: 13.5 ppg, 1.5 apg, .611 FG%, .667 3FG%
Soph. Guard Jaylin Jackson-Posey: 11.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.0 apg, 2.5 spg, .563 FG%, .667 3FG%
Grad Guard Roti Ware: 10.0 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 3.5 apg, .412 FG%, .600 3FG%
TEXAN ALCORNITES
The Alcorn Braves have four players from Texas (all from the Houston metro) on the roster (compared with SFA's six), including junior forward
Dekedran Thorn out of Pearland Dawson High School, redshirt sophomore forward
D'Andre Dues out of Alpha Omega Academy, redshirt sophomore
Gregory Crawford from Aldine High School and redshirt freshman
Shaun Walker from Manvel High School. Senior
Oddyst Walker isn't from Texas, Baton Rouge actually, but he played his first two years (57 games) at Stephen F. Austin,
Braves Notable News
Defending 2021-22 Achievements
The Alcorn Braves earned the SWAC Regular Season Championship for the first time since 2002 (17 total regular season titles) after notching a 14-4 league record, earning the top spot in the conference tournament seeding. The Braves were bumped out of the field by the eventual winner in the final, two-time champion Texas Southern. For their efforts on the year, Head Coach
Landon Bussie was named SWAC Coach of the Year in just his second season with the squad after turning around a 6-13 team from his first season. In year two, the Braves stared down losses in 11 of the first 12 games, but rebounded to finish 17-17 on the year. Prior to taking the ASU helm, Bussie served six seasons at Prairie View A&M serving as an assistant coach. After the 2021-22 season, Bussie was selected to coach in the inaugural HBCU All-Star Game during Final Four week in New Orleans.
Alcorn is Invested in Program Consistency
Alcorn Athletics announced on Oct. 27 that President Felecia M. Nave and Director of Athletics Raynoid Dedeaux have completed an agreement for a contract extension of Head Coach
Landon Bussie beyond his current deal and through 2026.
"This shows the commitment they've made to me and the men's basketball program. Hopefully, we can continue to have success in leading the program, and we can make all our administration, student-athletes and alumni proud of the work we do here each and every day. I'm excited about where we're going, and I'm happy to be a Brave," Bussie said.
Expertise Added to Coaching Staff
During the months leading up to the 2022-23 preseason, Bussie and the Alcorn Braves fortified their coaching staff with the announced hires of two coaches in August 2022.
The program first announced assistant coach Ben Mandelbaum was joining Alcorn after serving the previous two seasons as the associate head coach for the men's basketball program at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina. Mandelbaum spent two seasons at Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee, Florida.
Just one week later, ASU raised the bar higher with the announcement of adding veteran coach Cyrus "Cy" Alexander to the staff. A former head coach with 391 career wins across 26 years leading notable HBCU programs such as North Carolina A&T, South Carolina State and Tennessee State. Some of Alexander's distinctions include, but are not limited to, MEAC Coach of the Year and Palmetto State Coach of the Year. He has also been named to the Catawba and South Carolina State Hall of Fames, respectively. In 1996, he was named
American Sports Wire National Coach of the Year.
CATCH THE BRAVES LIVE AT THE WHITNEY IN 2022-23
Season Tickets for the 2022-23 Alcorn men's and women's basketball teams at the Davey L. Whitney Health and Physical Education Complex are now available for purchase at
https://alcornsports.myimpacttickets.com/basketball. Season tickets for the home SWAC competitions are $76.25, while single-game admission is $12.65 in advance.
UP NEXT
The Braves will head back to campus, but it won't be long before they're right back in the Lone Star State, taking up three games in El Paso next week against UTEP (Nov. 22), Texas A&M – Corpus Christi (Nov. 23) and CSU Bakersfield (Nov. 25) at the UTEP Jim Forbes Classic Presented by Speaking Rock in the Don Haskins Center. The first home contest for the Braves is not scheduled until the start of 2023 when ASU opens SWAC play as host to Jackson State on Jan. at the Davey L. Whitney Health and Physical Education Complex.
Follow Alcorn State Men's Basketball on Twitter (
@Alcorn_St_MBB) for all of the latest news and updates. For all Alcorn State Athletics news, follow us on Twitter (
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@AlcornSports) and YouTube (
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