MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Luther Page scored a career-high 22 points and Bobby Brown had 12 to lead ASU back from a 10-point deficit with 3:17 left to pace the Hornets to a 67-58 overtime win over Alabama A&M.The win moved ASU into second place in the conference and was also Lewis Jackson's 129th career win moving him into third place on the all-time wins list at ASU.
"It was an ugly ball game for us," Head Coach Lewis Jackson said. "We came into this game as big as it is, unfocused on the things we needed to do in order to put ourselves in position to win the ball game. We stumbled through the first half and we were lucky just to be down five. We came out in the second half and kind of went through the same thing; we were rushing through our offense, we weren't making rotations in our defense, but we kept saying during the timeouts you can do it guys just believe."
"We wanted to speed up the game because we were just walking in slow motion and we started to get some turnovers and got some shots to fall and here we are finding a way to win."
ASU (10-6/4-1 SWAC) trailed 51-41 after a Jeremy Crutcher three point field goal to give the Bulldogs their largest lead of the game with 3:17 left. From there the Hornets outscored AAMU 12-2 with the big baskets coming from Brown who hit two three point field goals. The final three with 28 seconds left evened the score at 53 to send the game into overtime.
After scoring eight of his 12 points in the final three minutes, Brown opened the scoring in the overtime period to give ASU a 55-53 lead, which was their first lead since leading 5-2 with 18 minutes left in the game. Brown's basket started the Hornets on their 14-5 overtime run in which Jamel Waters scored six of his 17 points, including a steal and layup with 23 seconds left in the game for the final score.
Page may have had the best game of his career, with eight of his points coming in the second half after scoring 14 in the first. He hit eight of his 14 field goals and was six of seven at the free throw line. He also added three steals.
"Luther came up big for us," Jackson said. "I think he had 14 or 15 points in the first half and he was the only thing we had going. He was playing with some confidence so we wanted to ride him. None of our shots were falling and the guys we want to shoot the basketball couldn't get anything to fall."
The Hornets struggled shooting the ball all night finishing the game shooting 37 percent from the field, and that includes hitting six of their 10 overtime (60 percent) field goals. ASU was even worse on their three point attempts only hitting three of 13, with two of the three coming from Brown within 24 seconds of each other in the final minute of the game.
ASU was again solid at the free throw line hitting 16 of their 24 attempts for 75 percent. ASU also won the rebounding battle 41-30 with Brown's nine leading the way. Page had eight and Maurice Strong added six.
AAMU (6-9/3-2 SWAC) was led in scoring by Crutcher who scored 15 points, all of which came in the second half. Demarquelle Tabb came off the bench to score 11 and also had a team-high seven rebounds.
AAMU shot 45 percent from the field until the overtime period where they only hit one of the four attempts. They finished the game shooting 43 percent from the field.
The Bulldogs hit six of their 17 three point field goals (35%), but only one in the second half. They hit 71 percent of their free throws hitting 12 of 17.
ASU's shooting woes started in the first half as they only shot 30 percent from the field hitting eight of their 27 field goals. The Hornets did not record a three point field goal missing all four attempts.
Page actually kept the Hornets in the game with 14 first half points hitting five of his nine attempts. ASU did manage to out rebound the taller Bulldogs 20-17 with Strong tallying five.
AAMU fought through some foul trouble but their three point shooting is what gave them the 28-23 advantage at halftime. AAMU knocked down four of their 10 three point attempts and all four came by players that came off the bench.
The Hornets will hit the road for their next two games beginning with the Hornets visiting Alcorn State Saturday, Jan. 25. The game is scheduled to tip off at 5 p.m.
Box Score
COURTESY ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION
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