On Monday, October 30th, at 7:00 pm in the Davey L. Whitney Complex (The New Gym) the reigning Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Champions, the Alcorn State University (ASU) Braves Men’s Basketball team, played an exhibition game against the Miles College Golden Bears from Fairfield, Alabama.
Alcorn’s starters consisted of Bryon Joshua, a Senior Point Guard, Roderick Jones, a Junior guard,
Willie Anderson Jr., a Sophomore Forward, Djhai Binet, a Junior Forward, and Alex Tsynkevich, a Junior Center.
Binet won the tip off for the Braves giving them the first possession of the game. Unfortunately, Alcorn was not able to score off of their first possession and turned the ball over to Miles, who was able to capitalize with an opening 3 pointer by Guard, Alvin Miles. Following the made shot by Miles, Alcorn was off to a slow start and struggled scoring the ball offensively. The Braves missed 3 back-to-back possessions allowing the Bears to take a quick 6-0 lead.
After not scoring for the first 2 minutes of play, Tsynkevich scored the first basket in the paint putting ASU on the board. Alcorn then found a sense of momentum and turned things up on the defensive side getting a rebound and a steal which led to 4 more points being added to the scoreboard for the Braves.
Alcorn tied the score up at 6 and switched up their defense and went to a full court press in hopes that they would be able to create more turnovers. The press worked because they were able to get a steal which sent them to the free throw line. For the next few possessions, Alcorn and Miles exchanged the ball with little to no scoring due to both defenses working hard. Alcorn would go on to score 13 points with Miles scoring 11 making the score 21-18 with a little under 10 minutes left in the first half of play.
With the game being extremely close, Jeremiah Gambrell hit a big 2 and 3 pointer which helped the Braves extend their lead to 30-22. Afterwards the Golden Bears hit a scoring drought only hitting one shot in the last 2 and a half minutes of play, but they were able to strike back with a quick bucket and a trip to the free throw line which cut Alcorn’s lead to 5. Alcorn went into the locker room at the half with a 35-30 lead over Miles.
After half time Alcorn started off with a quick 2 points but Miles quickly answered with a
deep three of their own. ASU then made a careless turnover and fouled Alvin Miles, sending him to the line where he was able to tie the game up at 37. The game stayed close for a while until Alcorn went on a 6 point scoring run extending their lead to 44-37. The Golden Bears continued to fight back but could not seem to catch up to the Braves.
For the rest of the 2nd half Alcorn continued to dominate both offensively and defensively. Alcorn’s Shooting Guard, Jalen Hawkins, had a great showing off of the bench in the 2nd half contributing to both sides of the ball by getting steals and scoring in the paint and around the rim. Not to be counted out, late in the 2nd half Miles went on a 6-0 run but it just wasn’t enough to come back and beat the Braves. The final score from ‘The Reservation’ was 70-60, Braves.
The Braves’ next game will be Monday, November 6th at 7:00 pm when they take on the 14 ranked Southeastern Conference (SEC) Arkansas Razorbacks at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
(Photo credit: Brandon Buie)
