Led by a suffocating defense, SU Men power past Alcorn St.

The Southern University men’s basketball team turned in another impressive performance on Saturday night as they defeated Alcorn State 62-54, maintaining first place atop the Southwestern Athletic Conference standings.
Junior forward Calvin Godfrey led all scorers with 17 points and dominated the glass with 15 rebounds, senior guards Malcom Miller and Yondarius Johnson also scored 11 and 10 points respectively.  
“We are an inside and out team, we like for our post guys to touch it (the ball), even if they don’t score, they draw attention then we play off them. We call a lot of plays every night to go inside for him (Calvin Godfrey); we were able to take advantage of it.” Southern University coach Roman Banks stated.
SU also continued its dominance defensively, holding Alcorn State to a meager 30 percent shooting on the night.
“Obviously our defense set the tone, and most nights it does. We knew that this would be a possession game.” Coach Banks said.
Godfrey fueled the Southern Jaguars (12-10, 8-1) to a 13-7 lead early in the game, scoring 10 of the team’s first 13 points. He consistently crashed the boards, causing Alcorn’s inside defense havoc throughout the night.
“I honestly feel like I’ve been playing basketball for too long. Now I understand where I’m supposed to hold myself, and the position I’m in as the leader of this team. I have to make sure that I do (exemplify leadership and produce) that every night.” Godfrey said
After Alcorn State (8-13, 5-4) tied the game at 16 apiece, the Jaguars answered with an 8-0 run to take a 24-16 lead in the closing minutes of the first half. That pivotal run was capped off by a Malcom Miller 3-point basket with a little over two minutes to play. The Jaguars led 28-20 at halftime.
Opening the second half with repeated 3-point baskets from Miller and Johnson, SU extended its lead to 34-20.  
After trading scoring runs for the first 14 minutes of the second half, Southern took its largest lead of the night 50-35 with 6:45 remaining compiling a series of crowd-pleasing dunks, the final coming from an emphatic dunk by Miller.
“It was a lot of adrenaline going through me (at the time); they gave me the baseline so I just took it. I know my teammates got hyped for me so that’s always a good feeling.” Malcom Miller said.
The Alcorn Braves tried to one more attempt at a rally, scoring eight of the next 13 points in the game, but Yondarius Johnson halted the Braves’ hopes, breaking through the full-court press and finishing with a forceful two-handed, rim-rocking slam, giving the Jaguars a comfortable 55-43 lead with just under three minutes to go.
 “We can get better. It’s not so much creating anything new; it’s just people understanding their roles better. I think this team is showing some character.” Coach Banks said.
Alcorn State was led by forward Octavious Brown, who finished with 18 points for the Braves, while guard LeAntwan Luckett added 13.
The Southern University Jaguars travel on the road to north Louisiana for their next game against the Grambling State Tigers on February 8th.