As it opens play in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament, Mississippi Valley State hopes the third time is a charm.
After losing both regular-season meetings to No. 2-seeded Alabama State, No. 7 seed MVSU faces the Hornets for a third time Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the league tournament in Houston.
The Delta Devils (6-25) lost 88-76 at home and 65-57 on the road to ASU (18-9).
The winner of Wednesday’s 2:30 p.m. contest will advance to face the Southern-Alabama A&M winner Friday at 2:30 p.m. in the semifinals.
The Hornets knocked off Jackson State on the final day of the regular season to earn the No. 2 seed in the SWAC Tournament. At one point during league play, Alabama State had a 10-1 record, but the Hornets lost three out of five at one point and finished two games behind TSU.
Valley comes in off a 94-75 loss to Arkansas-Pine Bluff. It lost seven of its last nine down the stretch of the regular season.
If Valley is going to upset ASU, it’s going to have to play tougher defense and get scoring help for senior guard Jeffrey Simmons of Greenwood.
Valley ranks last in the SWAC in scoring defense and field goal percentage defense.
Simmons, a Greenwood High School product, has carried the Delta Devils offensively during the second half of the season. He finished sixth in scoring in SWAC play with 14.7 points a game.
“Jeffrey has put us on his back and carried us offensively as of late,” Valley coach Andre Payne said.
“He is a utility scorer; he can score from a variety of ways.”
Simmons, a 2010 GHS graduate, averaged 15 points a game his senior season, helping lead the Bulldogs to a 24-7 record under head coach James Cole.
Simmons then played two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where the teams went 44-11 during that time.
He then signed with Southern Mississippi but transferred to Valley after a redshirt season in Hattiesburg.
