SAVANNAH, Ga. – Savannah State men's basketball had one of the strongest games of the year on Saturday, but yet again they struggled to finish, falling 68-70 to Tuskegee University in a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) game.
 
The Tigers were near full strength on Saturday for the first time as Bryce Parks, Zion Williams and Trey DeLoach rejoined the roster. At one point, four of the Tigers on the court were all from the Savannah area.
 
The deepening of the bench showed in the stats for SSU as five players were in double figures on the night. Williams led the Tigers with 16 points, a season-high for the junior transfer and Jenkins High graduate. Adrian Bonds, the current stats leader this year, tacked on 14 points for the Tigers.
 
Freshman Marcus Scott added 12, while Trey DeLoach—playing in his first game of the season—added 11 points and 9 boards. Andrew Okorodudu had 10 points and 7 rebounds for SSU as well.
 
Tuskegee opened the game with a quick advantage, leading by six points at the 11:59 mark. Amaru Bryant hit two good free-throws to open a huge 13-2 run for the Tigers. In that run, Scott drained a trey and Bonds hit two 3-pointers for the majority of the points.
 
With seven minutes to play in the opening half, SSU had a firm five-point lead on the visitors. Bonds hit yet another 3-pointer with 1:24 to play to give SSU a 36-28 lead into the locker room.
 
Bonds was 3-for-5 from beyond the arc in the opening half and led the field with 9 points. SSU's lead would hold through most of the second half as they pushed out to an easy double-digit advantage.
 
In similar fashion to Thursday's loss to Spring Hill—where SSU dropped a 15-point lead in the final 5 minutes, then lost the game in overtime—the Tigers were up 59-48 with 7:49 to play in the game.

Tuskegee, like Spring Hill, then opened a 12-4 run to cut SSU's lead to 63-60 with 4:49 to play. With 1:09 on the clock, James Eads drained a layup to tie the game at 68 and drew the foul on his way up. Eads added a good free throw to complete the 3-point play and  lift Tuskegee to their first lead in the second half. With 3 seconds left, Eads added one more good free throw for the final score.