Jan. 24, 2006

Final Stats

Baton Rouge, LA - It was the latest game ever coached by Sandy Pugh as the start time was 8:53 p.m. because of the live ESPNU game played by the men's teams. Maybe that's why the Southern University women's basketball team dropped their first Southwestern Athletic Conference game as the Lady Hornets of Alabama State University pulled out a 51-57 victory.

Usually in the SWAC the women's game start at 5:30 p.m. and the men start at 7:30 p.m. but because of the live television broadcast they did a flip flop with the women playing after the men.

"We've played after the men's team before but never this late," said Pugh. "This was a different feel for us."

In the first half it seemed as though SU was not affected by the start time as they jump out to a 20-9 lead. The Blue went on to take a 31-22 half-time lead on 9-30 shooting from the field for 30% and 11-20 from the charity strife for 55%.

The second started half started with Southern missing on their first six shots but saw ASU connect on theirs to make it 31-31 and the first of six ties in the game.

"Right now, I'm very angry, because I've just never seen a team let it down in the second half like we did. No execution, no team unity, nothing," Pugh said. "They deserved this butt-whooping."

With seven lead changes all coming in the second half SU was out played as Alabama State went on to shoot 14-29 for 48% from the field. They also shot 7-10 from the free-throw line for 70%. The Blue and Gold never found their offensive niche as they were out-scored 35-20 in the second half. The Lady Hornets went on to claim their fourth SWAC victory of the year while SU dropped their first home game of the season.

Southern (10-7, 7-1) was lead by All-American nominee Ashley Blake cleaned up the boards grabbing 13 rebounds, a season high. Freshman Ashton Jones scored 10 points off the bench.

Southern will play their final home game of January when they welcome Alcorn State University on Saturday, January 28th at 5:30 p.m.