LORMAN, Miss. — Clutch play wins championships.

On the road, in a tough environment, the Alabama A&M women's basketball team got the clutch moments it needed to remain in contention for one of the top seeds in the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament.

Nigeria Jones poured in a season high 26 points as Alabama A&M rallied in the final minutes to top Alcorn State 51-50 Monday night.

For Alabama A&M, in this game, nothing was easy.

Alcorn State (4-23, 3-12 in SWAC) led most of the fourth period and was poised for a significant conference upset.
But, in this game, a second-chance opportunity was the difference.

Trailing by one in the final seconds, Tierra Dark missed what would be the go-ahead shot at the rim. But, what normally would be negative was turned into a positive when Elexis Evans grabbed the rebound and banked in the putback with eight seconds remaining, giving Alabama A&M (13-12, 8-6) the lead for good.

"After a tough game for me at Southern I knew I had to step up for our team," Evans said. "Alcorn didn't have anybody who could really match up with me, so I tried to be as I aggressive as possible and crash the boards as much as possible. On the game-winning shot, I just made sure I was there to get the rebound in case of a miss, and turns out the shot missed and i put it back in for the score."

Nigeria Jones led Alabama A&M with a season-high 24 points. Dark added nine.

"I just tried my hardest to continue to attack the basket and finish opportunities at the basket, the free-throw line and leading my team for this big win," Jones said. "Hopefully we can carry the momentum from this big win into our next game and the rest of the season."

Alabama A&M hosts Prairie View on Saturday.