SAVANNAH, Ga. – Earnest Wilson III was surprisingly upbeat following his Savannah State football team's 52-29 loss to South Carolina State on Saturday in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game.

SSU's third-year head coach said his demeanor was a result of the effort, the fight, that his Tigers gave the entire game. A crowd of 2,900 at T.A. Wright Stadium celebrated SSU's 10 seniors, who played their final game, and Wilson was much happier with the way his players performed than he was after the Tigers' 42-3 loss to Hampton University the previous Saturday.

"I was concerned about this game overall because they have a couple of NFL (caliber) players on their team, especially No. 97," Wilson said of S.C. State defensive lineman Javon Hargrave, a 6-foot-2, 300-pound senior who finished with four tackles, including two sacks, and a forced fumble.

"We needed to continue to fight and I asked my men to send a message," Wilson continued. "I wanted a message sent, not just to the MEAC or South Carolina State, but I wanted a message sent to our coaching staff: 'I'm worth coaching.' I wanted our players to show them that they're worth coaching. This is an honor to be at Savannah State. It's an honor to coach here. It's an honor to play here."

South Carolina State (7-4 overall, 6-2 MEAC) improved to 17-1 in the series against SSU (1-9, 1-7), which lost its sixth straight game since beating Florida A&M, 37-27, on Oct. 3 in Savannah.

S.C. State jumped out to a 17-0 lead on Jalen Simmons' 2-yard touchdown run, Tyler Scandrett's 26-yard field goal, and Tevin Richard's 7-yard blocked punt return for a touchdown.

SSU cut it to 17-7 on starting quarterback Arshon Spaulding's 56-yard touchdown pass to Gary Scott and John Barron's kick for the extra point with 40 seconds left in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, S.C. State made it 24-7 on starting quarterback Adrian Kollock's 36-yard touchdown pass to Taquan West. But SSU answered again when Spaulding ran for a 58-yard touchdown. Barron missed the extra point wide to the right and the Tigers trailed 24-13 with 8:23 left before halftime.

"We were trying hard for our seniors," said Spaulding, who finished 6-of-11 passing with one touchdown and one interception. The 5-foot-11, 195-pound junior from Brunswick's Glynn Academy ran for a team-high 63 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. "We were trying our best to send them off with a win. We failed to do that but we never stopped trying. We put our best foot forward."

SSU pulled within eight points, 24-16, when Barron nailed a 39-yard field goal with 5:58 left before halftime. But S.C. State's Kollock again found West, this time for a 16-yard touchdown, with 47 seconds left before halftime. The Bulldogs led, 31-16, at halftime.

Kollock, a 6-foot-2, 202-pound junior from Spartanburg, S.C., finished 18-of-33 passing for 188 yards and two touchdowns. He threw three interceptions. West, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound senior from Lexington, S.C., made eight catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns, all game highs.

"We knew we had to throw it around pretty good," said S.C. State head coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough, who is in his 14^th year at the helm. "It was one of those kinds of deals where we thought Savannah was pretty greatly improved. We thought they could run the football. Anytime you can run the football it means you're pretty good at stopping the run, too. We knew they would be a big force and at this point we didn't want to give them any type of idea that they could stay in the game with us, although they did. They hung in the game with us. It was not quite what we were envisioning."

SSU cut it to 31-22 thanks to Rashad Saxton's 31-yard touchdown run with 10:44 left in the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter, SSU had run 26 times for 174 yards and S.C. State had run 36 times for 174 yards.

"Their offensive line is greatly improved," Pough said of SSU. "We didn't do a good job today of stopping the run."

S.C. State cornerback Devondre Powell stripped the ball from SSU wide receiver Derek Kirkland, a sophomore from Savannah's Calvary Day School, and returned it for a 14-yard touchdown, giving the Bulldogs a 38-22 lead with 7:19 left in the third quarter.

Early in the fourth quarter, SSU backup quarterback Leon Prunty, who rotated with Spaulding throughout the game, fumbled in the Tigers' end zone and S.C. State defensive end Reggie Owens recovered for a touchdown and a 45-22 lead.

But SSU answered again, as defensive back Vanquez Bonner intercepted Kollock's pass and returned it for a 29-yard touchdown, cutting the score to 45-29 with 7:20 to play in the game.

SSU linebacker Leonardo Myers made a game-high 17 tackles to finish the season as the Tigers' leading tackler with 74. SSU's Juwuan Tolbert, Marquis Smith and Gerald Robinson each forced S.C. State fumbles. Trevion Ashford and Stefen Banks recovered Bulldogs fumbles for SSU. And SSU's Ashford, Bonner and Johvonte Singleton intercepted Kollack three times.

"I like to focus on team goals but I'm happy that I led the team as a senior," said Myers, a 6-foot-1, 235-pound Augusta, Ga., native who transferred from Monroe Community College. "That's a good thing I can look back on and show my grandkids. But most of all, I'm proud of our guys. They stuck with it. We had a rough season but we just stayed with it. This game right here, I dedicated it to the passion of the game. I owe so much to this game because it gave me so much."

S.C. State made it 52-29 when Dondre Brown plunged into the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown with 37 seconds left in the game.

The Bulldogs finished with 248 yards rushing on 53 carries, sparked by Simmons' 77 yards and Dondre Lewis-Freeman's 75 yards. The Tigers ended the game with 182 yards rushing on 33 carries.

"We could have made a little bit better strides," SSU's Wilson said. "Of course, as a coach, I'm always going to think that. But I'm just really enthusiastic about what's coming back next year. We'll have seven returners on defense and then we're only losing one starter on offense who was a senior, so we've got 10 guys returning on offense. They're young.

"We're going to have the weight room in place. At least we'll use the student weight room," Wilson continued. "The coaching staff is young and we'll continue to train them. Good things are going to happen."