SAVANNAH, Ga.- Charleston Southern broke open a close game with a 13-0 and went on to defeat Savannah State 69-36 in Tiger Arena.

The loss, SSU's ninth a row, gives the Lady Tigers a 8-13 mark while Charleston Southern improved to 8-7.

Savannah State was down 9-2 but a layup by Crissa Jackson and two free throws by Courtney Long pulled SSU within three with 16:27 on the clock.

CSU answered with 13 straight points to go ahead 22-6 with 8:54 remaining in the half.

Free throws by Treasure Monroe sliced SSU's deficit to 14 but the Buccaneers ended the half with a 12-4 spurt and led 34-12 at the break.

Charleston Southern started the second half with a 15-3 run to increase their lead to 49-15 with 17:03 left.

SSU got with 30 with 10:53 remaining but the Buccaneers answered with a 13-4 spurt to grab their biggest lead of the night of 67-28 with 4:41 on the clock.

Savannah State out-scored CSU 8-2 the rest of the way but it was not enough.

Long scored 14 points for SSU and had six rebounds and four assists. Alisha Nelson scored eight points and Carlita Johnson came off the bench to grab eight rebounds.

Savannah State was 12 of 47 ( 25.5%) from the field while Charleston Southern was 12 of 27 (44.4%) from 3-point range.

Kelsey Wasmer and Katie Tull each scored 17 points for CSU. As a team CSU shot 46.2 percent from the floor and hit 9 of 10 free throws.