NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The Tennessee State seniors combined to score 42 points and led the Lady Tigers past Morehead State, 75-74, on Wednesday night.
Chelsea Hudson (20 points), Rachel Allen (10), Briana Morrow (6) and LaTeasha Hill (6) were honored before their final home contest.
Hudson’s 20 led TSU (14-12, 11-4 OVC) while I'mani Davis netted 16 and Jayda Johnson poured in 10 to round out the double-digit scorers for Tennessee State.
While the Lady Tigers benefitted from a handful of scorers, the defense caused 18 turnovers and blocked five shots.
MSU was paced by Shay Steele who scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed a team-best 12 rebounds.
Hudson started quickly and had eight of her team’s first 12 points of the game. The rest of the Lady Tigers were a combined 2-of-10 from the field during the opening eight minutes and trailed, 18-12.
Allen and Hill quickly closed the gap by scoring seven straight points and the Lady Tigers found themselves up, 21-18 with 9:43 to go in the half.
The sides traded the lead until a three-pointer by Jemilah Leonard at the 3:54 mark gave TSU its biggest cushion up to that point at 32-28.
A jumper from Davis gave the Lady Tigers a six-point lead later in the half, but Morehead made a bucket with 31 seconds left in the first half and TSU went into the locker room up, 36-32.
TSU outshot the Eagles 42 to 35 percent and held a 23 to 19 advantage on the boards during the opening period.
Davis kicked off the second stanza by canning a pair of three-pointers to put her team up by eight, but MSU went on a 9-3 run from there to make the score 45-43 with four minutes gone in the half.
The Eagles continued their charge and took a one-point lead with a triple at the 12:47 mark. The hoop started a stretch that saw eight lead changes in just over three minutes.
The Lady Tigers were still down by one with 4:57 to play when Allen hit a shot from beyond the arc to go up, 72-70.
A powerful back-down move by Hudson ended with an easy layup to put TSU ahead by five, but a Morehead freebie and three-pointer made it 75-74 with 21.9 seconds remaining.
A missed Lady Tiger free throw gave MSU one final chance to pull out a win with one second left. MSU inbounded the ball underneath the goal, but the pass was too hot to handle and the final horn sounded without a shot attempt.
In a game that was virtually even across the board, TSU outshot MSU 43 to 42 percent to escape with a 75-74 win.
Tennessee State will close out the regular season at Belmont on Feb. 28. Tip-off for the cross-town rivalry is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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COURTESY TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION
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