Valley State Remains Dominant: Devils Move to 13-0
SWAC.org
Mississippi Valley State took a big step in maintaining its perfect season Monday with a road win at Southern. The Delta Devils now have a commanding four-game lead in the SWAC standings. Elsewhere in the league on Monday, all three home teams won: Alcorn State, Prairie View A&M, and Texas Southern.
Mississippi Valley State 58, Southern 53
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Paul Crosby scored 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and Terrence Joyner had a big second half to lead Mississippi Valley State over Southern University 58-53 Monday night, for its 13th straight win.
The Delta Devils (14-11, 13-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference) outscored Southern 35-30 in the second half behind 13 of Joyner's 14 points.
The Jaguars (13-13, 9-4) outscored MVSU 9-3 to open the second half.
The Delta Devils answered with a 12-2 run, led by Joyner's seven points. Paul Crosby's jumper put MVSU up for good, 38-34, with 11:06 to play.
The Jaguars made it a two-point game on their next possession, but the Delta Devils pulled away, scoring seven straight. MVSU shot just 58.6 percent from the free-throw line (17 of 29), but went 10 of 13 in the second half.
Cameron Monroe led Southern with 15 points.
Texas Southern 64, Jackson State 57
HOUSTON -- Fred Sturdivant scored 21 points Monday night to lead Texas Southern to a 64-57 victory over Jackson State. Sturdivant went 8 of 11 from the field for Texas Southern (9-15, 8-4 Southwestern Athletic), which has won two in a row.
His accuracy helped the Tigers shoot 51 percent (23 of 45). Freshman Kelsey Howard hit double figures for the 20th time this season by scoring 14 points for Jackson State (6-19, 4-9), which has dropped five of its last six.
Keeslee Stewart added 13 points for Jackson State, which shot just 36 percent (18 of 49), though it converted 6 of 16 3-point attempts.
Texas Southern, which led 27-23 at intermission, held a slim rebounding advantage of 30-29.
The teams split the season series, as Jackson State won 54-51 last month.
Prairie View A&M 71, Grambling 52
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas -- Louis Munks scored 19 points and Prairie View A&M dominated inside in a 71-52 victory over Grambling State on Monday night.
Ryan Gesiakowski and Jourdan DeMuynck added 11 points apiece for the Panthers (11-14, 7-5 Southwestern Athletic), who used a 53-36 rebounding advantage to pile up a 38-14 edge on points in the paint.
Mayol Riathin led the way with 11 rebounds. Quincy Roberts scored 21 points to pace the Tigers (3-20, 3-10), who dropped their fifth straight game. Bryant Purvis added 10 points for Grambling State, which shot just 31 percent (20 of 65).
Gesiakowski put the Panthers ahead to stay 36-35 on a 3-pointer with 17:18 to go. That started a 10-0 run that made it 43-35 with 14:38 left.
Prairie View swept the season series by virtue of having won 81-64 on the road Jan. 16.
Alcorn State 66, Arkansas-Pine Bluff 58
ALCORN STATE, Miss. -- Twann Oakley scored 17 points, and Ken McDonald and Ian Francis scored 12 each as Alcorn State defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 66-58 Monday night, snapping the Golden Lions' four-game winning streak.
The Braves (8-17, 5-8 Southwestern Athletic Conference) led from start to finish. Oakley hit a jumper, then a 3-pointer, to cap a 14-4 run that gave Alcorn State a 21-9 lead with 9:28 remaining in the first half.
The Golden Lions (6-20, 5-8) trimmed their deficit to 36-32 at halftime.
Alcorn State led by as many as 10 points in the second half, then got four free throws by Francis and one by Xavian Rimmer in the final 27 seconds after Arkansas-Pine Bluff got within three, 61-58.
Savalace Townsend, the conference's leading scorer at 16.9 points per game, had 18 to pace the Golden Lions. Lazabian Jackson added 15 points and Mitchell Anderson had 10 points and 12 rebounds.