BATON ROUGE, La. ^__ For the first time since the 2010-11 season, Alabama A&M men's basketball has secured a series sweep over Southern, with a 68-65 win on Saturday night inside of the F.G. Clark Activity Center in the regular season finale.
 
After struggling to find the basket over the first two minutes of play, the Bulldogs got on the board with a layup from Brandon Powell to put the score at 5-2. Despite the early lead from Southern, A&M fought back to tie the game at 11-11, before taking their first lead of the contest at 14-13 after a pair of scores from Xavier Brewer.
 
Seconds later, Lorenzo Downey hit a pair of threes, followed by a triple from Jayland Randall gave the Bulldogs a 10-point lead at 23-13 with nine minutes to go in the half. Powell gave the team another double figure lead minutes later at 27-16, however the Jaguars closed in on the lead, getting within five at the with 2:35 remaining.
 
From there, the Bulldogs finished the half on an 8-2 run, sparked by a dunk from Brewer, followed by threes from Downey and Messiah Thompson to give A&M the 41-30 lead at the half.
 
Southern reduced the deficit again to start the second half, coming within five again after a pair of free throws and just two with just under 14 minutes to go to make the score 44-42. Forward William Tavares de Brito hit a big three a few possessions later, helping A&M maintain a short lead until they went up 56-48 on a layup from EJ Williams.
 
The two teams battled back-and-forth over the next few trips down, as the Bulldogs maintained control, never trailing again in the contest. After the Jaguars cut the lead to just a single point at 64-63 with 1:18 to go, Randall scored a clutch basket inside with 18 seconds remaining, followed by a pair of free throws from Downey after another score from Southern to earn the tight win.
 
Brewer and Downey led A&M offensively on the day with 16 points each, while Thompson also finished in double-digits with 11 points and four assists. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs finished the game with shooting splits of 56.5 (26-for-46) percent from the floor and 52.4 (11-for-21) percent from deep in the win.
 
Three Jaguars scored in double figures in the contest, led by Brion Whitley with 17 points, while Tyrone Lyons and Terrell Williams Jr. both added 12 points.
 
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