SAVANNAH, Ga. – In two key Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) games this week, Savannah State women's basketball split—falling to the top school in the conference on Saturday but returning to the court on Monday to pounce Paine.
 
The Lady Tigers shift into second place in the SIAC East Division with the win over Paine. They are tied with Paine and Fort Valley State with five conference wins apiece. Since they beat both teams head-to-head they take sole residence of second in the standings.
 
In the 62-91 loss to Benedict on Saturday—who leads the SIAC East with an 8-1 conference record—SSU struggled to stop the long ball as the Benedict Tigers drained 17 of 45 3-point chances. In the loss, however, freshman Amari Heard had one of her strongest outings, scoring a season-high 20 points to lead the field.
 
On Monday, junior transfer Ta'Kyla Austin led the field with 24 points, tying her season best. As a team, the Lady Tigers had their best shooting night of the entire season, managing a 55.9% clip from the field in the 81-61 win over Paine. They hit 33 of 59 field goal attempts.
 
Sophomore Azhana Maxwell recorded her first double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 defensive rebounds on Monday. SIAC top scorer Le'Andrea Gillis had two low key games this week, scoring 12 against Benedict and nine against Paine. Gillis still leads the conference and the Lady Tigers in scoring this season, averaging 19.9 points a game.  
 
The Lady Tigers have the best scoring offense in the SIAC, averaging 77.1 points a game. They improve to 10-5 overall and 5-5 in the SIAC heading into next week's conference schedule.
 
Savannah State travels to Albany State on Feb. 1 and then hosts Albany State in Tiger Arena on Feb. 10. On Feb. 12, they travel to Miles College to make up a game that was cancelled earlier this season due to weather.