Lorman, Miss – Southern head coach Sandy Pugh with her articulate pallid usually leads her team to outscore and outperform their Southwestern Athletic Conference rivals. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case against the Alcorn Braves in Davey L. Whitney Complex this past Saturday.
They lost two crucial post players of the team as senior power forward, Jasmine Jefferson, suffered a cut lip 2.5 minutes into the game and sat on the bench for 13 minutes. A minute after Jefferson was delivered to the bench, freshman guard, Briana Green, joined her after committing her second foul.
“Jas went down and she’s our heart and soul,” said Pugh, “I think that affected everybody,” finished Pugh.
This affected the team so much that Southern made 2 of 18 shots when they fell behind 30-13 in halftime.
With a 17 point deficit, Alcorn dissected Southern in the first half and with Alcorn (5-4, 6-12) vying for a chance to tie at second with Southern in the SWAC, their win was imminent.
But Southern dug deep and sequestered a turnaround in the second half to have a 59-51 victory in front of more than 3,000 fans. With the Jaguars collecting their sixth straight win makes them climb the ladder further to be 7-2 in the SWAC and 9-10 overall.
Alcorn’s opportunity was short-lived.
Pugh expressed the team’s level of intensity that needed to be brought out.
“I knew that if we came out and played the level of basketball that we’re capable of (in the second half), said Pugh, “we would’ve had a shot.”
Alcorn wasn’t ready for when Southern set the key tones for a defensive turnaround in which they had 15 steals and Alcorn had 28 turnovers.
Jefferson came with the plan in which Southern had to use to win.
“The game plan was to come out a trap really hard and force some turnovers,” said Jefferson.
After the 11-3 run by the two post players that rose from the bench, Pugh expressed her winning fashion with defensive ploy and cleansing her pallid.
“I turned to the assistant,” said Pugh, “and told them, we’re right back in this.”
Alcorn wasn’t quick to be concerned at another Southern win as they gained a 51-48 lead with 2.5 minutes left in which they did not score again.
Junior guard, Ashley Williams, a transfer from Baton Rouge Community College, finished the game with eight points and 4 rebounds but her rise with a 3 pointer to ease the lead early in the half kept the Jags alive.
“I’ve been waiting on a good game,” said Williams, “I think I finally had one.”
“Defensively she was great,” said Pugh in high regards to Williams performance.
Jefferson spoke on the rally of the team when she said, “Sometimes when teams are down 17, they just roll over and die and don’t have any hope. We are just playing hard.”
Green once again led the team with 14 points shooting 7-8. Kendra Coleman scored 12 points making all of her 8 free throws in light of her low shooting percentage and Jefferson scored 11.
Norianna Hayes led Alcorn with 16 points and Jazmin Strane scored 14 points.
Southern continues to show their usual stride as they host Grambling in the F.G. Clark Activity Center on February 7, 2015.
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6-0 Southern revives in the 2nd half
February 4, 2015
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