SANTA CLARA, California -- The Tennessee State men’s basketball team completed a sweep of the 50th annual Cable Car Classic with a 69-61 victory over Santa Clara on Sunday at the Leavey Center. TSU, which was the only undefeated team in the four-team field, is 3-0 for the first time since the 1994-95 season.
Delano Spencer (Atlanta, Ga.) nailed five three-pointers to lead TSU (3-0) with 15 points on the afternoon. Wayne Martin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) scored 12 points and Jordan Reed (Philadelphia, Pa.) added 11, while Tahjere McCall (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Darreon Reddick (Belleville, Ill.) tallied 10 points apiece for the Tigers.
TSU sprinted out to a 35-22 halftime edge over Santa Clara (1-2) and continued to play well in the second half, finishing 10-for-16 (62.5 percent) from three-point range.
The Tigers found themselves down 11-8 five minutes into the game as the Broncos shot 50 percent from the field in the early going. A 15-0 run by TSU highlighted by a pair of Spencer transition three-pointers gave TSU a 23-11 advantage. The TSU defense held the Broncos off the scoreboard for nearly seven minutes on the run.
TSU maintained a double-digit lead for the remainder of the half, taking its largest first-half lead at 35-19 on back-to-back threes from Spencer. Heading into halftime, the Tigers held a 35-22 edge behind 12 points from Spencer.
Santa Clara battled back, trimming the TSU lead down to 41-35 with 15:59 left in the second half. TSU responded with a run of its own to stretch the advantage back up to 16 at 62-46 on two threes from Reddick and another from Martin.
TSU made four free throws in the final 30 seconds of the game to pull away.
Next up for TSU is a road game at Middle Tennessee in Murfreesboro, Tenn. on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 6:30 p.m.
GAME NOTES: TSU moves to 2-0 in the all-time series versus Santa Clara with the Tigers defeating the Broncos by a 99-94 final score in the first meeting during the 1963-64 season… TSU’s last 3-0 start came in 1994-95. TSU has gone 3-0 to start the season three other times at the Division I level... Delano Spencer finished with five made three-pointers. The most a TSU player hit in a game last season was five, which was accomplished by Marcus Roper once and Keron DeShields on three occasions. The school record for made three-pointers in a game is nine set by Daryl Brooks versus Chattanooga on Dec. 8, 1989.
TSU Guard Jordan Reed
“In the very beginning, we got a lot of turkeys (three stops in a row). We just really listened to personnel well and our coaches did a good job as far as telling us their strengths and weaknesses of the other team. We made sure we stayed up on the shooters and gave the drivers a little bit of space.”
- On the team’s defense
“It means a lot. Coming out here to California, going all out for the team. It’s more so a confidence builder. I feel like we can build on top of that, knowing we went 3-0 and are going back victorious, that’s big for us.”
- On winning all three games
TSU Guard Delano Spencer
“It was intense. My teammates got me involved. I feel like it started on the defensive end. We brought out the energy on defense first and that carried over to the offensive end. It was a good experience out there.”
- On hitting five three-pointers
“Definitely coming out here in California, them having the home court advantage, that helped our toughness on the defensive end. We really came together and played as a team, so I think we were tough on both sides of the ball and that’s how we won.
- On beating Santa Clara on the road.
BOX SCORE
TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS
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