CENTENARY TAKES DOWN ALCORN STATE, 64-51, IN LSU INVITATIONAL
BATON ROUGE — Centenary held Alcorn State to just 11 second half points to rally from an 11-point halftime deficit to win going away, 64-51, Saturday night in the second game of the day at the LSU Invitational at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Centenary upped its season record to 2-5, both wins in Baton Rouge at the Invitational as it finished 2-2. Alcorn State, 0-4 in the Invitational, fell to 0-6 for the season.
Nick Stallings led Centenary with 19 points, 17 in the second half, with eight rebounds and five assists. Anthony Gatlin had 15 points and nine boards, while David Perez added 12. Alcorn was led by Troy Jackson with 19, while Brandon Rogers had 11 boards.
Neither team shot the ball particularly well for the game with both teams around 33 percent, but the Braves were 14-of-31 in the first half, 45.2 percent and able to jump on the Gents quickly, moving out to an 8-0 lead in the first 100 seconds. That lead built to 10, 15-5, and to 17 and finally to 20, 36-16, at the 3:33 mark. Centenary moved it down to 11, 40-29, at the break.
But in the second half, Alcorn went completely cold, getting a 12-point advantage twice in the first five minutes, the final time at 45-33, with 15:45 to play.
Centenary then went on a 21-2 run, eventually taking a 49-47 lead on a three-pointer by Gatlin at the 10:16 mark. The lead stretched to nine at 56-47 on a Chase Adams layup before JaMarkus Holt could score for the Braves.
Alcorn got the game back to five under six minutes but Centenary stretched it back out to the final margin.
The final game of the LSU Invitational is set for Sunday night at 6 p.m. as LSU hosts Troy.
TROY DOMINATES NORTHWESTERN STATE, 100-63, IN LSU INVITATIONAL
BATON ROUGE — The Troy Trojans showed how they have led the nation in scoring and in three-point makes in several of Coach Don Maestri’s 27 years at the helm as they put on a shooting clinic to down Northwestern State, 100-63, in the first game of Saturday’s LSU Invitational doubleheader at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Trojans are 2-1 in the event and could finish tied with LSU at 3-1 if they are able to knock off LSU in the final game of the Invitational Sunday night at 6 p.m. Troy is 3-3 overall. Northwestern State falls to 2-3 overall and finishes 2-2 in the Invitational round-robin event.
Troy his 6-of-9 treys to open the contest and had the lead out to 31-7 just 7:30 into the contest. The Trojans never really cooled off, taking advantage of 12 points off Northwestern turnover in the first half to lead by that same 24-point margin, 52-28 at intermission.
The Trojans continued to pour it on in the second half leading by 30 for the first time at 64-34 at the 16:53 mark on a dunk by Antywan Jones and pushed the lead to 37 points at 78-43 with 11:14 to play. Northwestern closed the game to 28 but Troy scored the final six points, getting the 100th point with 21 seconds left on a Chris Leggett jumper.
Seven Troy players were in double figures led by Travis Lee with 21 points off the bench with five treys in 23 minutes. Richard Delk added 17, Regis Huddleston 16, Brandon Hazzard 12, Tom Jervis 11, Antywan Jones and Chris Leggett 10. Starting point guard Michael Vogler had no points but had 17 assists in 26 minutes.
Northwestern State had no players in double figures with Keithan Hancock leading with nine points.
Troy shot 57.4 percent from the field (35-of-61) and 51.7 percent from the arc. Troy out rebounded the Demons, 47-32. The Demons shot just 33.9 percent (21-of-62) and 3-of-22 from the arc.