MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Jamel Waters tied his career-high with 27 points and Bobby Brown added 17 as Alabama State came from 12 points down to defeat Arkansas-Pine Bluff 77-64 in an important Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) game.
ASU (9-6/3-1 SWAC) trailed by 12 in the first half before using 22-9 run that ended the first half and went through the first four minutes of the second half to get back into the game. The Hornets took a 40-39 lead after an old fashioned three point play from Brandon Graham. It was ASU’s first lead since scoring the first basket of the game to lead 2-0.
“We knew they had a lot of veteran players coming back and they are a real seasoned ball club,” Head Coach Lewis Jackson said. “It was a great win for us because of the experience they have. They know what they are doing and run it very well and they do all their schemes on defense very well.”
“They had us rattled there in the first half. They had us in a hurry to do things and we had a talk at halftime to settle down a little bit and we got things going our way.”
Even though ASU fought their way back into the game, neither team led by more than three points over the next 10 minutes. UAPB’s Shawn Tingle scored with 5:46 left in the game to even the game at 58, but just like the end of the first half, ASU closed out the game outscoring UAPB 19-6 for the final 13 point win.
Waters and Brown energized the run with Waters scoring seven points during the run and Brown adding nine points on three consecutive three point field goals to put the game away.
“Bobby is our shooter,” Jackson said. “He is our best three point shooter and if he has an open look and it is within our offense he can take those shots. The thing about him is he believes he is going to make every shot he shoots and that is a good thing for us because with that type of confidence you will get shots to fall for you.”
DeMarcus Robinson struggled from the field but finished with 11 points joining Brown and Waters in double digits. Maurice Strong came close to his second consecutive double-double finishing the game with nine points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Not only did Waters score a lot of points, he once again got everyone involved in the game finishing with a game-high seven assists. He also played solid defense and had a game-high four steals. He was an iron man that night as he played all 40 minutes.
Marcel Mosley scored 18 points, all in the first half, as the Hornets held him in check in the second half. Davon Haynes joined Mosley with 18 points of his own and Tevin Hammond scored 10. Hammond was UAPB’s leading scorer coming into the game but only hit two of his 10 field goal attempts.
ASU shot 59 percent in the second half to off-set their struggles in the first half and finished shooting 47 percent from the field for the game. The Hornets also connected on nine of their 22 three point field goals for 41 percent and hit 21 of their 28 free throws for 71 percent.
ASU’s defense held UAPB (4-11/2-1 SWAC) to 41 percent shooting in the second half and 44 percent for the game. They were able to force 17 turnovers and turned those into 21 points.
“They had us back on our heels and it seemed everyone was in foul trouble so we were just putting guys in,” Jackson said. “We told them to just play hard and make good decisions with the basketball and it would work for us, and guys got into it and put their body on people and got rebounds and we made some small runs. Everybody has a job to do when they hit the floor so we expect everyone to do that when they get an opportunity to play.”
UAPB came out on fire to open the game with hitting four of their first five shots and all four were three point field goals. UAPB went on to lead by as many as 12 at 30-18 with 5:48 left in the half.
The Hornets were able to fight their way back into the game by halftime out- scoring UAPB 13-6 from that point on to only trail 36-30 heading into halftime.
ASU struggled shooting the ball against the taller Golden Tigers and finished the half only shooting 38 percent from the field and hit 23 percent of their three point attempts. ASU also struggled at the line only hitting five of their nine attempts.
Waters led ASU’s scoring effort with 10 points and Robinson had seven.
Mosley, who came into the game averaging 9.7 points per game, scored 18 in the opening half and Haynes added 11.
By comparison, UAPB hit 46 percent of their field goals in the opening 20 minutes, and hit 40 percent from beyond the three point line. They were also able to get to the free throw line 16 times where they hit 10.
The Hornets will host their final game of the three game home stand when they host rival Alabama A&M Saturday, Jan. 18 at 5 p.m. The game can be seen live on HornetVision and can be heard live on WVAS 90.7.
