Monday, December 23, 2013

Alabama State Lady Hornets Rally Back For Win Over SSU

MONTGOMERY, Alabama  -- Behind Quentori Alford's double-double performance of 13 points and 16 rebounds, ASU defeats Savannah State by the final score of 57-52.

Along with Alford, Taila Arrington had ten points and a team high four assist. Nakiya Smith added nine points of her own in the Lady Hornets victory.

"Our ladies fought hard all game," said head coach Freda Freeman-Jackson. "We started off slow tonight, but the girls played really good defense to pull us within three points at the half, the girls showed they had a lot of will power in the second half which helped us fight back and pull off the victory."



The first six minutes of the game Savannah State jumped out to the early five point advantage over the Lady Hornets. SSU would then extend their lead by going on a 7-2 run for a span of three minutes.  Poor shooting would hurt the Lady Hornets as they managed to shoot just 26.9% from the field at the end of the half but, remained much alive in the contest only trailing the Tigers by three heading into the locker rooms (26-23).

Alford led the way for ASU at the half with ten rebounds despite having only four points shooting (0-2) for the field for the half.

"Quentori had a great night, she had to battle against SSU's Tiyonda Davis size, but she had a really good game even though she scared me a little after taking that shot to the nose, she showed toughness by going back into the game and finishing it out." Freeman-Jackson stated.

ASU would come out for the second half energized as they would outscore SSU 7-4 in the first five minutes tying the score at 30 a piece. Both teams would battle back and forth until the 8:29 mark when ASU would take the one point lead (37-36).  After a stretch of ties by both teams in the final minute of play the Lady Hornets Daniele Ewert would capitalize off of a key put back basket with 29.7 seconds to go. ASU would then take the 57-53 victory over SSU after sinking in their final free throws.

The Lady Hornets defense came up big tonight forcing 19 Tiger turnovers limiting their offense to just 17-53 from the field shooting 32.1% for the entire game.

"Our defense played possession basketball in the final two minutes stepping up getting multiple stops which led to tonight's victory." said Freeman-Jackson.

Alabama State will go on break for a short holiday break and will be back in action as they will travel to Georgia Tech, Holiday Tournament in Atlanta, Ga. on Dec.29-30th.

Box Score

COURTESY ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

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