STARKVILLE, Miss. — Down big early and on the road, Alabama A&M Coach Willie Hayes knew his team needed to adjust. That, or face embarrassment at the hands of Southeastern Conference opponent Mississippi State.
“I said ‘Fellas, we’ve got to keep them off the glass,”’ Hayes said. “We can’t let their big guy get that low.”
Hayes’s adjustment worked, as Demarquelle Tabb and Jeremy Crutcher scored 14 points each to lead Alabama A&M to a 59-57, comeback victory over Mississippi State on Sunday.
Mississippi State (4-7) opened the game on a 14-3 run and led 33-25 at the half.
“We really lost that game at the end of the first half,” Mississippi State Coach Rick Ray said. “We took some illadvised shots and ended up going into half only up eight points instead of 15 points.”
After the break, Alabama A&M (4-7) held the Bulldogs scoreless for the first 7 minutes, 22 seconds of the second half and eventually took a 35-33 lead.
“We mainly keep [the] ball out of [the] interior,” Hayes said. “We put pressure on their guards and that helped us get out in transition and get easy baskets.”
The lead changed several times throughout the rest of the half.
“We got relaxed with the lead, and then we tried to getback in the groove,” Mississippi State center Gavin Ware said. “But they had already started to get hot.”
With 43 seconds remaining, Green Hill hit a layup to give Alabama A&M a 58-57 lead. After a failed possession by Mississippi State, Hill hit another free throw to seal the win.
“That big steal at the end of the game was crucial for us,” Hayes said. “He played tight the whole game.”
Tabb was 7 of 16 shooting and Crutcher was 5 of 10.
As a team, Alabama A&M shot 42.1 percent from the floor (24 of 57) and 31.3 percent (5 of 16) from three-point range.
Brandon Ellis added 13 points for Alabama A&M along with seven rebounds and three blocks.
The Bulldogs shot 35.7 percent from the field (20 of 56) but hit only seven shots in the second half. Mississippi State was only 4 of 15 from beyond the arc.
Craig Sword paced Mississippi State with 14 points, and Gavin Ware added 12 points and 11 rebounds, his second consecutive double-double.
Jalen Steele scored 10 points for Mississippi State in his first game back from a wrist injury on Nov. 13.
Alabama A&M is the second Southwestern Athletic Conference team to beat a SEC team this season after Southern beat Texas A&M on Dec. 22.
“This is a big win not just for our program, but for our conference,” Hayes said.
Sports, Pages 17 on 12/31/2012