Savannah, Ga.- Savannah State (1-8) rallied from a eight point deficit but could not pull out the win as the Tigers dropped a low-scoring 41-39 decision to Fairfield in Tiger Arena before 688 fans.

SSU trailed 40-32 with 43 seconds left. A dunk by Jyles Smith followed by a 3-pointer from Jovonni Shuler pulled the Tigers within three with 16 seconds remaining.

Fairfield's Maurice Barrow made a free throw to give the visitors a 41-37 edge.

Joshua Montgomery made a layup for the Tigers with one second left but SSU ran out of time.

Montgomery had 13 points and six rebounds for SSU while Smith grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked five shots before fouling out.

Fairfiled led 20-14 early in the second period and it expanded to 33-26 with 7:26 remaining.

SSU was able to slice their deficit to three points before the visitors went ahead 40-32 with 43 seconds left.

In the first half, the visitors led 8-3 before SSU tied the game at 11 with 10:56 on the clock.

Fairfield scored six straight points to finished the half with a 7-2 run and a 18-13 halftime edge.

Derek Needham finished with a game-high 15 points for Fairfield.

Fairfield improved to 3-3 despite shooting 27.7 percent from the floor and being out-rebounded 38 to 35. Fairfield went the last 3:50 of the contest without a field goal.

SSU, who dropped their eighth straight, shot 38.5 percent from the floor and made just 6 of 18 free throw attempts.