Southern def Prairie View A&M 68-56
BATON ROUGE, La. — Trelun Banks scored 17 points, including a pair of three pointers Saturday night, to help Southern University to a 68-56 win over Prairie View A&M in the Southwestern Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
Adrian Rodgers added 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting and Tre Lynch chipped in 12 for Southern (4-11, 1-0), which shot 43 percent from the floor but was 8 of 15 from long range to snap a three-game skid. Banks sank all seven of his shots from the foul line and also had four steals.
Trailing by five at the break, the Jaguars took the lead midway through the second half during a 13-1 run fueled by Banks, who sparked it with a three-point play, then added another layup and a pair of free throws.
Tre Hagood led Prairie View with 13 points and seven assists, while John Brisco also had 13 points. Leading scorer Montrael Scott was held to seven points for the Panthers.
Alabama State def Grambling State 71-50
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Maurice Strong scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half to help Alabama State open Southwestern Athletic Conference play with a 71-50 win over Grambling State on Saturday night.
Strong’s dunk with 5:28 left capped a 15-1 run to put Alabama State (5-5, 1-0) up 58-41. Strong had six points during the run and grabbed eight of his nine rebounds in the second half.
After a 28-all halftime tie, Alabama State opened the second half on a 10-3 run. Grambling State (2-9, 0-1) closed within 43-40 before the Hornets pulled away.
Luther Page added 12 points and Wendell Lewis scored 11 for Alabama State. The Hornets had their largest lead on Jamar Pope’s 3-pointer to cap the scoring for both teams with 55 seconds left.
Mark Gray had 18 points and 10 rebounds for Grambling. A’Torri Shine scored 12, Remond Brown11 and Richard Freeman grabbed 14 rebounds.
Texas Southern def Alcorn State 72-55
LORMAN, Miss. — Tonnie Collier scored 27 points and Chris Thomas added 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead Texas Southern over Alcorn State 72-55 in a Southwestern Athletic Conference opener Saturday night.
The game was the 13th on the road for Texas Southern (4-10, 1-0). It still has two more away before playing at home.
In their previous four games, all on the road, the Tigers upset then-No. 25 ranked Michigan State, lost to Auburn by a point, beat Kansas State by two then lost to New Mexico State by two. In those four games, the Tigers held their opponents to an average of 58.4 points. That defensive trend continued against Alcorn State.
Texas Southern had a 41-18 lead at halftime. Alcorn State opened up the second half outscoring the Tigers 15-6 but didn’t make much headway thereafter.
Leantwan Luckett’s 17 points led the Braves (1-12, 0-1), who lost their eighth straight.
Jackson State def Alabama A&M 70-67
NORMAL, Ala. — Raeford Worsham scored 19 points and Javeres Brent sank the go-ahead three pointer to lift Jackson State to a 70-67 win over Alabama A&M in the SWAC opener for both teams Saturday night.
Dre’Sean Looney added 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting and Treshawn Bolden had 12 with eight rebounds for the Tigers (3-11, 1-0), who halted a two-game skid with the win.
After falling behind in the second half, Jackson State retook the lead on a pair of threes from Brent that made it 60-59 with 5:04 to play, then padded it with buckets from Worsham and Derrell Taylor. The Tigers went 6 of 6 from the foul line to clinch it down the stretch.
Alabama A&M (1-10, 0-1) took the lead with a 9-0 run in the second half but couldn’t hang on.Marcus Merriweather’s 17 points led the Bulldogs, who have lost eight straight.
Mississippi Valley State def Arkansas Pine Bluff 67-63
Pine Bluff Ark. – Johnvaughn Love’s 24 points and 11 rebounds for Arkansas Pine Bluff wasn’t enough and Mississippi Valley State gave Andre Payne his first conference victory in his debut season. The 67-63 ended a six game losing streak for the Delta Devils.
UAPB shot 22 percent from three point range on 8-of-35 shooting from beyond the arc. MVSU on the other hand connected on 44 percent of its shot attempts led by Jordan Washington’s 17 points and trio of three pointers. Latrell Love scored 13 points while DeAngelo Prior chipped in 12.
The SWAC’s leading scorer in Marcel Mosley was scored 14 points to go along with eight assists and six steals. Thaddeus Handley and Ghiavonnie Robinson each chipped in 10 apiece.
Tonight’s victory was the first conference opening victory for the Delta Devils since the 2011 season.
SWAC.org
