The madness has already begun.
With a little over three seconds left in the game and needing to go the entire length of the court for a bucket, Alabama State coach Tony Madlock drew up the perfect play.
With shades of Christian Laettner and Grant Hill in ’92, Hornets guard Micah Simpson threw a hail-mary pass into a sea of players. The ball deflected, tipped in the air and caromed off multiple players—right into the hands of Amarr Knox.
Knox then put up a layup to put the Hornets ahead by two with one second left, sending the bench into a frenzy as they stormed the court to celebrate.
The perfect deflections led to the Hornets winning their first-ever game in the NCAA Tournament, defeating St. Francis 70-68 in a back-and-forth affair.
Knox’s game-winner capped off his team-leading 16-point night. He shot 8-15 and added two steals.
Guards CJ Hines and TJ Madlock also finished with double-digit points, scoring 11 and 10 points respectively. Madlock grabbed seven boards and dished out two assists.
Red Flash freshman Juan Cranford led the game with 18 points and eight boards. He was a sniper from deep, nailing 5-7 shots from beyond the arc.
Valentino Pinedo and the team’s regular season leading scorer, Riley Parker finished with 17 and 12 points respectively.
The Red Flash had a more efficient scoring night, shooting 50% from the field and 45.5% from deep. They also had 10 more free throw attempts than the Hornets, going 10-14 from the charity stripe.
However, sloppy turnovers and errant passes doomed the team, who combined for 15 turnovers in the game. The turnovers limited scoring possessions and created 26 points for the Hornets.
St. Francis led the entire second half until a Hines three gave the Hornets a 62-60 lead with less than five minutes to play.
The Hornets will now travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to take on the tournament’s top overall seed—the Auburn Tigers.
