BATON ROUGE, LA. -- Southern men's basketball defeated Alcorn State 89-75 Saturday afternoon at F.G. Clark Activity Center to close out the regular season at home. 

The Jaguars were led by Samkelo Cele who finished with 22 points. Jayden Saddler added 16 points and was a perfect 6-of-6 from field goals. Harrison Henderson chipped in 14 points and eight rebounds. Terrell Williams finished with 11 points, Brendon Brooks had 10 points and eight assist.

After a tight first half, the Southern men's basketball team ratcheted up its effort on defense against Alcorn State. The focus on defense paid off as the Jaguars took a hard-fought 89-75 win at the F.G. Clark Activity Center.

Southern (8-8, 8-4 SWAC) scored the game's first eight points and led 17-8 at the 16:00 media timeout. Trading baskets back and forth ASU took 26-24 lead after Walker's 3-pointer. Walker was called for a foul while Williams made a 3-pointer from the right wing at the 6:54 mark. The basket counted and the off the ball foul sent Delor Johnson to the foul line where he made both free throws. Henderson layup followed by Cele old fashioned three point play increased SU lead to six points at 37-31 with 3:56 left to play tell halftime. The Jaguars took a 43-39 halftime lead into the locker room. 

"I felt our guys were locked in and we did a good job of defending. We were able to force Alcorn to shoot some tough shots over us and we kept them off the offensive glass. We were able to put some pressure on them by controlling the tempo and pushing the ball to get some easy baskets. We will watch the film and keep improving as we head to Texas this week for two really good matchups," Southern Head Coach Sean Woods said.

SU opened the second half and a 11-0 run and defensively gave ASU some fits as the Braves didn't score until Crosby basket right before the media timeout. The Jaguars lead grew to as many as 22 points as SU went on a a copule more runs and coasted to their fourth consecutive victory.

Southern shot 30-of-51 (59%) from the field and was 23-for-30 at the free-throw line (76.7%). The Jaguars out rebounded the Braves 25-23, out socred ASU in fast break points 21-10.

Alcorn State (6-10, 6-5 SWAC) was led in scoring by Byron Joshua and Troymain Crosby who both finished with 16 points. Justin Thomas added 12 points for the Braves. 

UP NEXT
The Jaguars will travel to Prairie View on Thursday, March 4 for a 7:30 pm tip-off.

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