SAVANNAH, Ga.- Freshman guard C. J. Reed scored a game-high 14 points to lift Bethune-Cookman to a 55-29 win over Savannah State in Tiger Arena before a crowd of 501 fans.
It was the first home loss for SSU this season as they fell to 7-6 overall and 7-1 when playing at Tiger Arena.
The Wildcats evened their record at 6-6 with the win.
Bethune scored the first eight points of the game. Savannah State did not dent the scoreboard until reserve guard
Tracy Rankins made a layup at the 14:27 mark.
B-CU expanded their lead to 17-2 with 10:51 left in the half. Savannah State sliced their deficit to 10 but the Wildcats used a 11-0 run to grab their biggest lead of the half at 28-7 with 1:14 remaining.
SSU was just 4-of-15 from the field in the first half and 2-of-8 from the free throw line. Bethune shot 42.9 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes.
Bethune led 30-12 at intermission.
The Tigers found themselves down by 23 early in the second period before going on a 8-2 mini-run to close their gap to 39-22 with 11:20 left.
Bethune answered with six straight points and increased their advantage to 52-27 with 3:40 remaining.
Although SSU limited Bethune to just one field goal the final seven minutes of action, the Wildcats also used their defense as they held SSU without a field goal the final six minutes, 20 seconds.
Bethune used strong rebounding and bench play to get the victory.
The Wildcat reserves out-scored the SSU bench players 28-7 and Bethune beat the Tigers on the boards 40-31, limiting Savannah State to just seven offensive rebounds.
Alvin Pegues added 12 points for B-CU and Alexander Starling had 11 rebounds.
Bethune shot 36.4 percent from the floor for the game while SSU shot 26.5 percent.
