NASHVILLE ­– The Tennessee State men's basketball team dropped the season opener against Alabama A&M, 82-73, at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
 
FIRST HALF | TSU took the lead early on as Kenny Cooper, graduate transfer from WKU, scored his first point as a Tiger at the free throw line. Christian Brown, a transfer from Georgia, cashed in with a three-point basket to give Tennessee State a four-point lead. Alabama A&M bounced back with a 13-0 run, as they found scoring from five different players. The Tigers chipped away with four straight three-point field goals, two apiece from Kassim Nicholson and Marcus Fitzgerald Jr., to cut the lead to 21-18. TSU re-claimed the lead at the 6:56 mark on a layup from Purdue transfer, Emmanuel Dowuona. The Bulldogs' leading scorer from 2020, Jalen Johnson, tallied three of the final five baskets to give A&M a lead at halftime. || A&M, 40-34
 
SECOND HALF | Tennessee State began the half with consecutive buckets, a layup from Cooper and a three-pointer from Marshall Jr., to cut the lead to one possession. The two programs went on a "see-saw", exchanging baskets and the lead, during the mid-point of the half. Jalen Dupree, a transfer from Samford, recorded five of his seven points on succeeding possessions. With 9:32 remaining, Fitzgerald Jr. extended the Tigers' lead to 61-57 on an acrobatic layup, which forced an A&M timeout. Following the timeout, Alabama A&M went on a 11-4 scoring run in large part to Garrett Hicks' two three-pointers. With 5:44 remaining, the Bulldogs took a 70-69 lead. At that point, TSU went on a scoring drought and registered four points in the final 5:44. || A&M, 82-73

INSIDE THE STATS

• Nicholson, a graduate transfer from UAB, posted a double-double as he secured a game-high 15 rebounds and registered 10 points.
• Dedric Boyd, a redshirt-junior from Illinois State, led TSU with 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field.
• Cooper swiped three steals and dished out five assists. In his three years at Lipscomb, the guard totaled 59 games with multiple steals.
• Alabama A&M's Jalen Johnson registered a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
• The Tigers went to the free-throw line five times, while A&M had 21 attempts from the charity stripe.
• TSU outscored the Bulldogs in bench points, 37-14.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE:

• TSU has opened the year on the road in six of the last seven seasons.
• The season opener was Marshall Jr.'s first game since December 18, 2019.
• The Tigers have seven transfers on the roster, six from Division I programs, as well as three true freshmen.
• The Bulldogs returned 12 of 13 players from last year's roster.

UP NEXT: Tennessee State will hit the road this weekend as they travel to Atlanta for the Gateway HBCU Invitational. The Tigers take on Norfolk State at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 13.