PRINCESS ANNE, Md.- Deric Rudolph scored 21 points to lead Savannah State to a 73-54 win over Maryland-Eastern Shore in WP Hytche before a crowd of 1,323.

Rudolph, who made scored 15 of his points in the first half, also had three assists and two steals.

The win ends the Tigers (21-10, 14-2) regular season with a 13 game winning streak and gives them the top seed heading into the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament.

Rashad Hassan added 18 points, Arnold Louis came off the bench to score 16 and Jyles Smith grabbed 11 rebounds.

With the scored knotted at eight, Rudolph drilled a 3-pointer to start a 15-5 spurt to give SSU a 23-13 lead with 11:13 on the clock.

The Eagles pulled within 26-19 but 10 unanswered points by Savannah State put the visitors ahead 36-19 with 2:46 left in the opening period.

SSU led 40-22 at intermission.

The Tigers led by 23 early in the second half and a 3-pointer by Rudolph at the 15:16 mark gave the Tigers the largest lead of the evening at 54-30.

UMES would battle back and slice their deficit to 65-51 with 5:10 left but would get no closer as Savannah State would hold the Eagles to one field goal the rest of the way and win by 19 points.

SSU shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half and 47.3 percent from the floor for the game.

The Tigers out-rebounded UMES 39 to 29.

Hillary Hailey led UMES (7-22, 4-12) with a game-high 22 points.

The victory gave the Tigers their first regular season conference title since the 1980-81 squad won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.