MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Alabama State was able to hit six consecutive free throws in the final 21 seconds to lift the Hornets past Chicago State 79-75.The Hornets led by as many as 14 points (56-42) in the second half with 10:20 left only to see the visitors start chipping away at the lead and actually cut it to 77-75 after Quinton Pippen hit three free throws with four seconds left. DeMarcus Robinson put the game away as he hit the final two of the six free throws to push the lead back out to the final 79-75 score.
"Like any good team they are going to make a run and the thing you have to do is make your free throws, take care of the basketball and get good shots," Head Coach Lewis Jackson said. "I thought tonight we did not do a good job of stopping penetration when we were not in our zone, but we came back and made our free throws and were able to hold them off."
It was the second consecutive game the Hornets has been solid at the free throw line. After making 32 of 39 in ASU's win at Jacksonville State the Hornets hit 21 of 26 (80.8%) at the charity stripe and that includes 20 of 24 in the second half alone.
Robinson led the Hornets in scoring with a team-high 21 points. He had plenty of help in scoring as Jamel Waters added 18 and Bobby Brown came off the bench to score 14.
ASU (3-2) out rebounded Chicago State 35-32 with Luther Page leading the way with seven and Bobby Brown with six. Waters had six assists, but ASU only had 11 as a team. ASU did force 13 turnovers that led to 20 points off turnovers and their 15 offensive rebounds led to 20 second chance points.
Along with shooting their free throws, the Hornets also shot well from the field finishing the game knocking down 46.4 percent (26-56) of their field goals, although they only hit six of the 21 three point field goals (28.6%).
CSU (2-3) would not go away easily as Quinton Pippen led the visitors with 21 points including nine points in the final 1:43 seconds to get CSU back into the game. Clarke Rosenberg came off the visitor's bench to score 14 and Matt Ross added 12, and had a team-high seven rebounds.
CSU shot 47.3 percent from the field (26-55) and also shot well from the free throw line canning 18 of their 25 attempts (72%). They hit five of 14 three point attempts for 36 percent.
Even though CSU was able to hang around, it was the Hornets zone defense that held the Cougars scoreless for the final 4:25 of the first half and the first 4:03 of the second half. During that time the Hornets went on a 15-0 run to turn a 29-24 deficit into a 39-29 lead.
"What they were doing was just attacking the basket early on and we were not doing a good job of rotating on our defense; sliding over and cutting off the baseline and stepping up and taking charges," Jackson said. "We wanted to hold the zone further into the second half but they kept attacking. It worked for us later in the first half and we came back to tie the score at halftime."
The two teams went into the half even at 29. ASU had jumped out and led by as many as seven at 9-2 after the Hornets hit their first four shots of the half. From there the visitors started to attack the basket and make their run.
With ASU leading 19-15 Chicago State went on a 6-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 21-19 with 8:11 left in the half. CSU would go on to build their lead to 27-21 after a Rosenberg three.
ASU went into a zone coming out of the final media timeout with CSU leading 29-24. The zone slowed the Cougars offense down allowing the Hornets to score the final five points of the half to even the score.
Robinson and Brown had eight points each to lead ASU while the Horents shot 41.4 percent from the field.
CSU was led by Pippen's seven points while Eddie Denard and Rosenberg added six each. CSU shot 43.3 percent from the field in the first half.
There are a lot of things the Hornets will work on before their next game, but the coaching staff knows how important the team's free throw shooting has been these past two games.
"Our free throw shooting has been really, really important these last two games," Jackson said. "They tell you all the time at the line is the difference between winning a
The Hornets will be off for two weeks with their next game coming Dec. 7 when they travel to Troy to face the Trojans at 1 p.m.
nd losing and we lost a lot at the line last year. These last two ball games the guys have really stepped up and concentrated and made their free throws down the stretch. If you want to win ball games you have to do that because a lot of the games are going to be close and you have to be able to stretch out a lead or catch up."
Box Score
COURTESY ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION
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