Southern cruised past Alabama St., into SWAC tourney semis

Mar 10, 2016, 11:55 pm

HOUSTON -- Adrian Rodgers hit three 3-pointers and finished with 22 points and eight rebounds to help No. 4 seed Southern cruise to an 83-63 win over fifth-seeded Alabama State in the quarterfinals of the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament Thursday night.

Jared Sam and Trelun Banks scored 13 apiece for Southern (20-12), which will face top-seeded Texas Southern (18-13) in the semifinals Friday.

Banks scored six points during a 13-0 run that put the Jaguars up 21-6 with 11:54 to play in the first half.

Alabama State (14-17) made just 10 of 39 field-goal attempts (25.6 percent) and went into halftime trailing 40-26.

Rodgers and Sam scored four points each during an 8-0 run to open the second half and Southern led by at least 14 the rest of the way.

Jamel Waters had 20 points, five rebounds and nine assists for Alabama State. Tony Armstrong scored 13.