Alabama State sophomore guard Amarr Knox hit a layup with 0.7 seconds left to give the Hornets a 70-68 win over the Saint Francis Red Flash, securing the program its first-ever NCAA Tournament win as well as a spot in the Round of 64.
“I think I’ve talked about this with all of the media, that all of our games end just like this, either we have to get a bucket or we have to get a stop,” said Alabama State head coach Tony Madlock during the postgame press conference. “Fortunately enough we were able to get a bucket to finish this game off… We just talk about finding a way. Finding a way. We got the W, and that’s the only thing that matters.”
With 3.4 seconds left in the matchup, Junior guard Micah Simpson launched the ball to the opposite side of the court where it was tipped in the air twice before being caught by Amarr Knox, who was able to get off the winning shot with roughly two seconds left in the game.
“We wanted to throw the ball long, and we put our tallest, [most] athletic person [out there] to go get the ball,” Knox said. “Fortunately, everybody tipped the ball, it landed to me, and I got the rebound, made the layup. But, I couldn’t have done it without my whole team.”
Senior guard TJ Madlock discussed how the team practices these types of plays constantly.
“We go over a lot of situational stuff in practice every day,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s about who wants it, and I know he (Knox) obviously showed he wanted it a little bit more tonight.”
ALABAMA STATE TAKES A LEAD IN THE FINAL SECOND 😱#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/TktQHBcwo9
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 19, 2025
Madlock, who was one of the players who tipped the ball in the air, admitted that he wasn’t the intended target of the pass.
“It wasn’t supposed to go to me, but I wanted to go get it, go make a play, and that’s what I did,” he said. “But it wasn’t supposed to go to me; it was supposed to go to our big. But hey, it’s March Madness. Anything can happen.”
“For everything that happened with Alabama State. First time winning a tournament game. We got to 20 wins this year. Now, you know how hard that is for an HBCU school. It’s so hard because you have to play those money games early,” Tony Madlock explained. “But for us to just fight and fight and fight and find a way to get to 20 wins, it just means so much to our program, to the city of Montgomery, to Alabama State University. We just want to make that city proud.”
“We’re going to enjoy this tonight. We’re going to have this bus ride a couple of hours down the road to Lexington and get a chance to play at Rupp Arena. I mean, how can you beat that,” he continued. “There’s nothing like it. We can’t wait.”
Alabama State will face the top-seeded Auburn Tigers at 2:50 p.m. EST on March 20th. The winner of that contest will face the winner of the game between Louisville and Creighton in the Round of 32.
