Monday, March 2, 2015

Claflin Women Advance to Quarterfinal of the 2015 SIAC Tournament

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama  — The Claflin University women's basketball team defeats Lane, 73-59, in the opening round of the 2015 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) tournament.  The tournament, which is being played at the Bill Harris Arena in the Birmingham Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala., will run thru Saturday, March 7.

With the win, the Lady Panthers improves to 14-13 overall.  Lane College closes out the 2014-15 season with a 5-20 overall record.

Junior Jaquanna Davis led the way for Claflin with a double-double, 17 points, 13 in the first half, and a game-high 19 rebounds.  Davis also had two blocks in the game.  Uniqua Mitchell also had a double-double for the Lady Panthers with a game-high 23 points and 10 rebounds.  Claflin had three players to finish in double-figures as Shaniece Brown finished with 12 points including 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.



Claflin, who controlled the game from start to finish, scored the first eight-of-12 points of the of the second half en route to its biggest lead of the game, 16, 46-30, at the 13:33 mark.  Lane managed to put together an 8-0 run of its own over the next four-plus minutes to cut the deficit to single digits for the first time in half, 49-41, with just under 10 minutes remaining.  The Lady Panthers remained poised, using a 9-2 run to push its lead to 15, 58-43, with 7:02 remaining in the game.  Lane pulled within 10 points on five occasions but could not get any closer falling by the 14 point margin.

"First I want to congratulate Lane and coach Buchannon on its season," head coach Deont'a McChester said.  "We finally played the type of game I knew we were capable of playing especially Jaquanna who finished the game with a double-double." 

The Lady Panthers opened the first half on a 10-2 run with Davis scoring eight during the run.  Claflin pushed its lead to 15, 19-4, with 13:41 remaining in the half before Lane picked up its offensive intensity.  Lane managed to cut the deficit to five, 25-20, with 7:55 remaining, but the Lady Panthers kept pressing pushing its lead back to 12 at intermission, 38-26.

Claflin will take on the number one seed in the East, the Lady Tigers Benedict at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 4. This will be the third times the teams will meet the season.  The Lady Tigers won both meetings this season. 

BOX SCORE

COURTESY CLAFLIN UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

No comments:

Post a Comment