WILBERFORCE, OH - The Allen University men's basketball team held off SIAC West foe Central State 80-77 in overtime on the road Monday evening.
ALLEN has now won five of their past six games to improve to 5-3 overall and 3-1 in the conference.

AU got out to a strong start leading 33-17 with five minutes to play in the first half before going on to lead 39-30 at the break shooting 51 percent from the floor and 62 percent from the three-point arc. Allen then came out of the break increasing their lead to 13 at 46-33 on an Austin James three-pointer, one of his two on the night en route to his 20-point game.

The Jackets would keep their double-digit lead throughout the second half leading 65-54 with just five minutes to play on Mohamed Alkadi's three-pointer. However, CSU would then go on a game-tying 14-3 run to knot the game at 68 apiece and send it to overtime.

Allen then outscored the Marauders 12-9 in the extra period to snag their third conference win. James led Allen with his season-high 20 points on 8 of 15 shooting along with 3 rebounds, an assist and a steal while fellow shooting guard, junior Malik Lacewell, added a season-high 15 points as he went a perfect 3 for 3 from three-point land.

Junior center Tavis Bridges also had a solid game scoring 13 points on 5 of 6 shooting with 4 rebounds, and season-highs of 3 assists and 3 blocks while senior forward Tyriq McAdoo led the team with 12 rebounds, a block and 2 steals. Point guard G'Shan Aldridge led the team with eight assists along with 3 steals and 6 points while Nakia Johnson, Jr. scored 8 points with 4 rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal. Alkadi and Peyton Weathersby combined for 10 points as well.

Allen will next return home to host NCCAA foe Carolina Christian College on Friday night at 6 PM in their last home game of the semester.