MONTGOMERY – Jamel Waters scored a game-high 18 points in leading Alabama State to an 84-60 win over Alcorn State as the Hornets remained undefeated in Southwestern Athletic Conference action.
Waters led four players in double digits as Luther Page added 14, Maurice Strong 13 and Steve Rogers 10 as ASU shot 46 percent from the field.
“A solid ball game,” Head Coach Lewis Jackson said. “We have been talking about getting off to a good start in the first halves of ball games and tonight we were able to come out and throw the first punch. We’ve been playing from behind our last three or four ball games and we put an emphasis on trying to get out in front and we really did a good job of that.
The game was never in doubt after Alcorn held an early 3-2 lead. Waters’ first basket of the game gave the Hornets a 4-3 lead at the 17:32 mark in the first half and ASU never trailed again slowly building their 17 point halftime lead.
The second half was much of the same as the starters only played about half of the second half, with the reserves picking up most of the playing time. ASU led by as many as 27 points on three occasions before settling in for the 24-point cushion.
ASU (10-5/6-0 SWAC) also had a solid defensive game holding the Braves to 38 percent shooting and that includes 9 percent (1-11) from beyond the three point line. Alcorn did show why they are one of the top free throw shooting teams in the SWAC as they knocked down 17 of their 23 attempts.
Alcorn State (4-15/3-4 SWAC) came into the game with one of the top scorers in the conference in LeAntwan Luckett. He was averaging 14 points per game and in this game he only managed five points, only hitting one of his 11 field goal attempts. Marcus Vance was averaging a little over 12 points per game, but the Hornets held him to nine, although he did a solid job on the boards with 12.
“I thought defensively we did an outstanding job on their scorers in the first half, Luckett and Vance,” Jackson said. “DeMarcus (Robinson), Bobby (Brown) and BG (Brandon Graham) really did a number and we played good team defense on their guys and we were able to score some points. So it was a solid two halves of basketball and it was something we have been looking to do for a while.”
Michael Davis was Alcorn’s leading scorer with 15 points. He was joined in double digits by Kenyan Pittman who finished the game with 10.
One game after being out rebounded, the Hornets took to the boards out rebounding Alcorn State 51-36. Strong finished off his double-double with 12 rebounds and Wendell Lewis added a career-high 10 rebounds to go with his seven points.
Waters had another solid all-around game. He only played 25 minutes due to the Hornets building a big lead. His game-high 18 points came on eight of 12 shooting with two free throws. He also had a game-high five assists and tied his season-high with six rebounds.
“He (Waters) is the general of the team, one of the captains, and as he goes is usually the way that we go,” Jackson said. “We have been trying to get him to be a pass first guy. He’s been a scorer coming in, but he’s accepted that responsibility (pass-first) and he is doing a pretty good job of it. We still need him to score, and he’s quick enough to get into the lane and make guys bite. He can also find guys in transition and he is really coming into his own in terms of leading the team to where we need to go.”
The Hornets were up and down in the first half but did manage to take a 43-26 lead into the locker room at halftime. Waters had 14 first half points and Strong contributed with 11 as ASU finished the opening 20 minutes shooting 46 percent from the field.
ASU’s full court press forced 11 turnovers as Alcorn could only manage 36 percent shooting. They were able to stay as close as they did by hitting eight of their 11 free throws. Luckett, the Braves’ leading scorer, only scoring two points, which came from the free throw line.
