By W.H. STICKNEY JR.
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Texas Southern came away with a 72-67 overtime victory over Alabama A&M on Saturday at the Health & PE Arena that they probably would like to forget.
They don't like to remember their shoddy free-throw shooting, the manner in which they turned the ball over with regularity and trouble trying to solve the zone defenses and intermittent man-to-man of the Bulldogs.
There is no way, though, they'll let escape from their minds the fact that the triumph was enough to gain them a share of first place in the Southwestern Athletic Conference with Prairie View A&M and Alabama State, a 72-57 loser at Prairie View on Saturday night.
"It was an ugly win, but a determined win," said Ra'Kim Hollis, the Southwestern Athletic Conference's leading scorer who overcame 5-for-16 shooting (2-for-7 from behind the three-point arc) to score 18 points with eight rebounds.
"We probably didn't beat them in any (statistical category)," said Hollis. "Probably, it was the Lord."
A few prayers certainly didn't hurt. Coach Ronnie Courtney said later that starting forward Lionel Willis was injured Friday in a minor car accident. He spent the night dressed in street clothes sitting on the bench.
Late in the second period, starting forward Jerome Bell suffered leg cramps and was unavailable during the five-minute overtime.
Hollis, too, suffered a leg injury during the middle of the overtime but toughed it out over the final 2:57.
Those were huge obstacles for the Tigers (11-6, 7-1) to overcome. But in the overtime, Allen Lovett, quiet most of the night, came up big.
And senior Akil Butler, Bell's replacement, nailed a huge three-pointer, made one of two free throws and came up with two defensive rebounds to help the Tigers wheel into the victory circle.
They now await the arrival of Alabama State, which visits the Health & PE Arena on Monday night in a shootout for first place.
Three-point ace Anthony Hayes of A&M led all scorers Saturday night with 24 points. His running mate out on the perimeter, Obie Trotter, threw in 10 points.
Though the Bulldogs twice overcame 11-point deficits in regulation and two times fought back from 10 points down, they could muster only five well-spaced points in the overtime.
The Bulldogs are 5-11 overall, 2-6 in SWAC.
Texas Southern, after making 25-of-29 free-throw attempts in a win at Mississippi Valley earlier this week, was 18-for-37 from the stripe on Saturday.
The biggest problem they faced, however, was trying to combat the Bulldogs' multiple zone defenses.
Texas Southern started slowly, turning the ball over four times and missing its first five field-goal attempts.
