Women's Basketball 3/15/2014 12:06:00 PM

Women’s Basketball Concludes Historic Season

Box Score

NORFOLK, Va. – The Savannah State women's basketball program had an exceptional year.

The 2013-14 Lady Tigers ended the season with a 19-14 record and a 10-6 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) record, as well as a 10-2 record in Tiger Arena, all were the best in the program's Division I era (2002-03).

They made history in the MEAC Tournament with two wins over Morgan State and Florida A&M this past week. They were the first basketball team in the school's history to make the semifinals of the MEAC Tournament.

On Friday, at halftime of the semifinal game of the MEAC tournament against No. 1 Hampton, the Lady Tigers were on the verge of making even more history.

SSU trailed Hampton 21-25 with 55 seconds to play in the first half. Junior point guard Bria Dorsey sank two free-throws and senior Jasmine Kirkland drained a buzzer beater to tie the game at 25 into the locker room.

Hampton's senior Alyssa Bennett propelled the four-time defending MEAC Champions to a 65-49 win over SSU behind a 40-point second half. Bennett poured in 29 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in the win.

The Lady Tigers were led by junior Jasmine Norman with 12 points. Norman scored a career-high 22 points in SSU's quarterfinal win over Florida A&M. Senior Ezinne Kalu followed Norman with 11 points.

"This is definitely a step in the right direction for the Savannah State University women's basketball team to participate in the MEAC semifinal game," SSU head coach Cedric Baker said in a press conference after the game. "Coming in, we were excited about playing Hampton…a great deal of respect for their staff, their team and of course their players."

"I thought we had control of our emotions and went into halftime with a fight and with a chance, Baker continued. "But, you're playing a championship program, they're very poised, they're very controlled, I think they took advantage of our youthfulness and at the end of the day, they were victorious."

Both teams got off to a slow start in the opening half. Hampton pushed out to 22-13 lead with six minutes to play.

Kirkland sparked an 8-0 run for the Lady Tigers with a layup. Norman drained two free-throws and sank a fast break layup off a steal to cut Hampton's lead to 22-21 with 2:28 to play. Bennett sank three free-throws before SSU's final run that tied the game.

Hampton pushed out to their first double-digit lead of the game, 40-29, behind a 13-2 run in the opening minutes of the second half. Kenia Cole drained three 3-pointers in the run. She finished with 12 points.

The Lady Pirates controlled the rest of the second half, dipping below their double-digit lead only once, and holding SSU to only 24 points. Hampton improved their shooting percent in the field from 23.1 percent to 54.2 percent in the second half.

Kalu again emerges as the point's leader for SSU. She ended with 516, averaging 16.1 points per game. Kirkland concluded the season averaging 9.7 points a game, while Norman was close behind with 9.5 points a game.

Freshman Tiyonda Davis led the Lady Tigers this year in rebounds with 236, averaging 7.2 an outing. The Lady Tigers averaged 66.2 points as a team, per game, ending with a 40.8 percent shooting clip from the field.

Baker, in his 11th year at the helm of Savannah State, concludes the season with the best Division I coaching record, 111-209, in the program's history. Baker also eclipsed a career 300 wins this season. He is currently 305-324 after 21 years of collegiate coaching.

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