Alcorn State University snapped a five-game losing streak as it beat Rust College 83-68 Thursday evening in the Braves’ final tuneup before conference play kicks off Jan. 2.

The home game was Alcorn’s first since Nov. 22 against Blue Mountain College, and the Braves appeared more than comfortable back in their home gym.

“This game was encouraging going into conference play,” ASU coach Montez Robinson said. “We have to continue with the trend and have guys get their feet set and knock down shots and taking what the defense gives us.”

Five separate Alcorn players reached double-figures as the Braves (3-8) improved to 3-0 at home this season.

A.J. Mosby led the Braves with 19 points and 10 rebounds and nearly recorded the triple-double after dishing out seven assists.

“Getting people involved, that’s my job as a point guard,” Mosby said. “I get my teammates involved first, then I get myself involved.”

Mosby was not only productive but also efficient as the junior guard connected on 6-of-9 field-goal attempts, including five 3-pointers, and committed no turnovers.

“We’ve been trying to get him to play within himself, because this is what he can do,” Robinson said. “He’s a guy that scored 1,000 points in two years (at Chattahoochee Tech) and averaged 19-20 points. He can get it going, and he can be efficient. He doesn’t have to take a high volume of shots to be a high scorer.”
As a team, Alcorn connected on 13-of-31 from beyond the arc while shooting 46.2 percent from the field.

“I was really pleased with the way we shot offensively,” Robinson said. “I’ve been waiting on a game like this where we have our shooters all clicking at the same time.”

The Braves also played lockdown defense, holding Rust to just 37.3 percent shooting for the game, including 29.3 percent in the first half.

“You definitely want to hold teams under 40 percent, but we have to do some things a lot better than what we did,” Robinson said. “We allowed too many straight-line drives, too many (drive and) kicks for 3s. Defensively, it was just an OK game.”

Reginal Johnson scored 19 points and pulled down 12 rebounds for ASU, while Avery Patterson had 12 points. Yalen Reed and Rahamanh Katumbusi each chipped in with 11 points. Marquis Vance led the Braves with 14 rebounds, including five offensive rebounds, and TyQualyon Smith had three blocked shots.

“This was good for our team — having a home game before we go home for Christmas,” Mosby said. “We needed this win. I think we’re improving. We have some spots we still need to clean up, but we’ll be alright.”

Alcorn led at the half, 43-30, ignited by a 9-3 run at the end of the first half to push their lead to double figures.

Alcorn led by as many as 20 points in the contest and led for more than 36 minutes in the game.

As proud as Robinson was for his team’s performance on the floor, the second-year coach said he was just as enthusiastic for its efforts off the court.

“We had a 2.8 grade-point average (for the fall semester), and seven guys had a 3.0 GPA or better,” Robinson said. “And we’ve been on the road all semester. For the guys to do that as a team, I’m just ecstatic about that.”

Robinson said the nearly two-week layoff before the Braves pick back up in action in January comes at an opportune time.

“We’ve got to get some guys healthy,” he said. “(Forwards) DeAndre Davis and Devon Brewer didn’t play tonight. Marquis Vance played tonight, but he’s been having a knee injury, so we need to get him going. This break is a well-needed break. We just played three games in five days. We’ve just been on the road so much and battling.”