HUNTSVILLE, AL. - Vann Pettaway hopes the Alabama A&M basketball team that showed up in the first half Saturday night against Alcorn State shows up tonight when the Bulldogs host Southern in an important Southwestern Athletic Conference game. Tipoff is 7:30 at Elmore Gym.
A&M dominated Alcorn State in the first 20 minutes to take a commanding 42-20 lead at intermission. The Bulldogs led by as many as 25 points before settling for a 64-55 victory.
"We need to play two halves like we played the first half against Alcorn State," Pettaway said. "This is a big game for us."
The Bulldogs (7-8, 4-2) are currently in fourth place with trip to league-leading Texas Southern Saturday. The Jaguars are 4-15 and 3-4 and coming off of a 64-52 win at Alabama State Saturday night.
Southern, typically, has played at a slow pace to keep the scores down, but coach Rob Spivery has opted to let the Jaguars push the ball this season, Pettaway said.
"In the past, we'd be working to try to speed the game up, but we don't have to do that now," he said. "We've got to be worried about our transition defense because they are pushing the ball up the floor and they've got a lot of people taking shots.
"We've got a pretty good idea of what they're going to do. We've got to come out and execute."
A&M has been led by Casey Cantey and Cornelius Hester, who are averaging 10.5 and 10.4 points, respectively. Hester had a game-high 18 points in the win over Alcorn State, while Cantey had 17.
A&M women hosts Southern
First place in the Southwestern Athletic Conference will be on the line tonight when Alabama A&M hosts Southern University at Elmore Gym. Tipoff is 5:30.
The Bulldogs (9-7, 5-1) are coming off of an embarrassing 61-43 home loss to Alcorn State. A&M was outscored 36-16 in the second half after leading 27-25 at intermission.
"We picked a bad night not to shoot well or play defense," A&M coach Altherias Warmley said after watching the Bulldogs shoot 28 percent (17-of-60) from the field, including 14 percent (2-of-14) from 3-point range. A&M was 6-of-30 from the field in the second half and 1-of-9 from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, Southern (9-8, 6-1) has won four straight games and is coming off of 50-41 win at Alabama State.
"We know we're going to have to battle," said Warmley, who is 5-15 all-time against Southern. "We're at home and we want to take those games at home, but Southern's always a tough team and we've got to be ready to play."
