BATON ROUGE, La. -- Jamel Waters had 16 points, including the winning jumper with 0.5 seconds remaining, and six assists to help Alabama State remain tied atop the Southwestern Athletic Conference by beating Southern 56-54 on Monday night.

Wendell Lewis had 10 points and eight rebounds while Maurice Strong grabbed 11 rebounds for Alabama State (16-7, 12-2).

Waters made two free throws tie it at 54.

Southern's Franks Snow missed a jumper and, after Keith Davis grabbed the offensive rebound, Christopher Hyder missed a 3 with 54 seconds left.

Then DeMarcus Robinson missed a runner in the lane, but the Hornets retained possession when the ball went out of bounds off of Southern.

Waters dribbled down the clock before hitting a tightly-contested, long jumper from the left wing which proved to be the winner.

Trelun Banks scored 11 for Southern (14-15, 11-4), which is a game-and-a-half back of Alabama State and Texas Southern.

Alabama State hosts Texas Southern on Saturday.