Women's Basketball 3/11/2015 9:05:00 PM

Women’s Basketball Reaches Semifinals Of MEAC Championship

No. 2 Lady Tigers Cruise Past No. 10 Coppin State, 66-52, in quarterfinals game

Box Score

NORFOLK, Va. – Four Lady Tiger's scored double-digits as the Savannah State women's basketball team earned a wire-to-wire, 66-52, win over Coppin State in the quarterfinals of the 2015 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Basketball Championship Tournament at Scopes Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.

It was the ninth consecutive win for the No. 2 seeded Lady Tigers, an all-time program best win streak. This is the second consecutive year that SSU women's basketball has reached the semifinals of the MEAC Basketball Tournament.

They will play in Game 19 on Friday, March 14 at 2:30 p.m. against the winner of Game 14 between No. 5 Bethune-Cookman and No. 3 N.C. A&T State.
Prior to their game, the Lady Tigers watched the University of Maryland Eastern Shore upset five-time defending MEAC Champion Hampton with a buzzer-beating field goal in Game 10 of the quarterfinals.

"It was definitely a day full of emotion in seeing the game between Maryland- Eastern Shore and Hampton," SSU head coach and MEAC Coach of the Year Cedric Baker said in a post-game interview. "A lot of times the tournament doesn't start until that first upset. So my biggest concern coming in was how we were going to be able to regulate our emotions. We obviously had a good regular season but everyone is undefeated at this point. I'm pleased most of all with the effort of our young ladies and their ability to go out and stay in control of their emotions."

The Lady Tigers stayed composed against Coppin State, a team they narrowly beat in an overtime victory in February, never trailing in Wednesday's game. But, they did get a slow start, as both teams came out trading points for the opening five minutes.

At the 14:34 mark, MEAC preseason player of the year Ezinne Kalu opened a 12-3 run for SSU with a short jumper. Senior's Jasmine Norman and Bria Dorsey followed with field goals to keep the surge going. Freshman Tanease Richardson capped the run with a layup, giving SSU a 16-7 lead with 11:54 to play.

Norman led the field with her first double-double of the season. She grabbed 10 rebounds and scored 16 points on the night. Her last double-double came against Florida A&M on February 3, 2014.

Kalu finished with 16 points as well on the night. She continues to lead the Lady Tigers this season, averaging 16.4 points a game. Dorsey ended with 12 points on the night as well.

Sophomore Tiyonda Davis led the field in rebounds, picking up 14 on the night. The Lady Tigers outrebounded Coppin State 45-34, a key to their success according to Coppin State head coach Derek Brown.

"They played better than we did today, they were physical, they were quicker," Brown said. "I'm not saying they wanted it any more than we did, but they got to some balls got to some rebounds, I see where we got out rebounded by 11...that might've been the difference right there."

Norman drained two good free-throws with 4:29 to play in the opening half, to lift SSU to their first double-digit lead at 21-11. Norman was stellar from the charity strip on the night, draining 6-of-7 attempts.

Savannah State went into the locker room with a 28-17 lead. This season they are 15-2 when leading at the half.

Freshman Shanikwa Buie sank a layup on the first possession of the second half to spark a little run for SSU. Kalu tapped in a jumper in the paint two minutes later to give the Lady Tigers their largest lead, 34-16, of the game.

Buie registered her first career double-digit scoring effort with 10 points on the night, after getting her 10^th starting nod of the season.

Midway through the half, Coppin State made a run at SSU's growing lead. Janelle Lane and Jordan Swails combined to help the Eagles to a 9-0 run that cut SSU's lead to 44-35 with 11:24 to play.

It would be the closest the Eagles would get to the Lady Tigers lead as Kalu, Dorsey and Buie responded with a 7-0 SSU run.

The Lady Tigers held on to a double-digit lead for most of the remaining 10 minutes. Swails sank two good free-throws with 2:49 to play, to cut SSU's lead to nine points (58-49).

But, it was short lived as SSU's defense held Coppin State from any scoring in the final minutes. SSU is 17-0 on the season when leading with three minutes left.
Swails and Genesis Lucas led Coppin State with 13 points each.

SSU scored 40 points in the paint on the night, and 31 off turnovers. They shot 41.7 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from the free-throw line.

"I felt like coming in we had to start attacking immediately and try to get points in the paint as much as we can," Kalu said. "Coppin State is a great defensive team so we didn't want to rely on jump shots; we wanted to take it to them as much as possible."

The semifinals are the deepest any SSU basketball team as made it in the MEAC Championship into the school's fourth year of competition. The 2013-14 Lady Tigers were beat by Hampton after getting wins over Morgan State and Florida A&M in the 2014 MEAC Championship.

SSU's semifinal game will be televised on ESPN3 and broadcast live in Savannah on WHCJ 90.3 FM.

2015 MEAC WBB Bracket (Day 3) link: http://bit.ly/1MsTur4
ESPN3 streaming link: http://es.pn/1M3Dtt7
WHCJ 90.3 FM streaming link: http://streema.com/radios/WHCJ

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Players Mentioned

#1 Bria Dorsey: G; 5' 7"; Senior

#4 Jasmine Norman: G; 5' 9"; Senior

#23 Ezinne Kalu: G; 5' 8"; Senior

#44 Tiyonda Davis: C; 6' 2"; Sophomore

#14 Tanease Richardson: F; 6' 0"; Freshman

#15 Shanikwa Buie: F; 5' 10"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#1 Bria Dorsey
: 5' 7"; Senior
: G

#4 Jasmine Norman
: 5' 9"; Senior
: G

#23 Ezinne Kalu
: 5' 8"; Senior
: G

#44 Tiyonda Davis
: 6' 2"; Sophomore
: C

#14 Tanease Richardson
: 6' 0"; Freshman
: F

#15 Shanikwa Buie
: 5' 10"; Freshman
: F