Men's Basketball | 1/14/2018 2:47:00 PM
Box Score SAVANNAH, Ga.- Five players scored in double figures as Savannah State defeated Maryland-Eastern Shore 87-59 in a game played at Tiger Arena.
It was the Tigers home opener for Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play.
Alante Feener had a big night off the bench for Savannah State (5-13, 2-1 MEAC) with 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
The crowd of 2,136 saw
Javaris Jenkins lead the way with 17 points and seven rebounds. A day after his 20
th birthday,
Zach Sellers added 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists while
Jahir Cabeza scored 13 points and
Dexter McClanahan added 12 points and six rebounds.
UMES jumped out to a 12-2 lead in the opening half but SSU rallied to tie the game at 20 with 8:12 showing thanks to key 3-pointers by
Austin Dasent, Jenkins and Fenner.
The Hawks answered with seven straight points but Savannah State put together a 10-2 run to go ahead 30-29 with 2:46 on the clock.
Down 34-32 with just under a minute left, Fenner sent the Tigers into intermission with a 35-34 lead after his 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in the half.
Early in the second half, SSU found themselves down 38-37 but responded with a 14-2 run to take a 51-40 lead with 13:33 left.
A free throw by Tyler Jones and a layup from Miryne Thomas got UMES within eight but they would get no closer the rest of the contest.
With ten and a half minutes remaining, the Tigers led by nine but used a 18-7 spurt to take a 74-54 cushion with 3:38 left.
Cabeza capped a 10-0 Tigers run with a dunk with 1:05 remaining to give SSU its largest lead of the game at 84-56.
Savannah State shot 43 percent from the field, made 31.3 percent of their 3-point shots and went four of eight from the free throw line.
The Tigers won the rebounding battle 49 to 36.
UMES was led by Jones' game-high 20 points while Thomas grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds.
The Hawks (5-14, 1-3MEAC) shot 38.3 percent from the floor, 21.7 percent from beyond the arc and 53.3 percent from the free throw line.
The game was a homecoming for UMES assistant Clifford Reed who spent the 2013-14 season on the Tigers staff.
