AMERICUS, Ga.- Savannah State fell to 2-2 on the season after falling to Georgia Southwestern State 73-54 in a game played on Saturday afternoon at the Storm Dome.

Amani Hamilton and K'lya Hankerson each scored 15 points for the Lady Tigers. Hamilton added five rebounds, one assist and one block while Hankerson chipped in six rebounds, three blocks and a steal.

Hamilton and Alayah Birch both hit a pair of free throws to give Savannah State a 4-0 lead in the first quarter. The teams would trade baskets and the Hurricanes went ahead 11-6 with 3:59 left in the quarter before SSU answered with a free throw by Mya Byrd, a layup by Hamilton and a jumper by Kayla Grant to tie the game at 11.

Two free throws put GSW ahead by two but a jumper by Birch with 53 seconds left tied the game at 13.

The Hurricanes scored the first basket of the second quarter to go ahead 15-13 but back-to-back layups by Hankerson gave the Lady Tigers a 17-15 edge.

With the contest knotted at 23 with 5:27 showing on the clock, GSW closed the half with a 12-2 surge to take a 35-25 lead into intermission.

Savannah State found themselves down by 18 with 1:28remaining in the third quarter and used a layup and two free throws from Jazmin Thornton and a layup by Byrd to close their gap to 52-40 at the end of the third quarter.

Trailing 61-43 with 5:26 left in the game, Savannah State scored the next six points with Hamilton making two layups and Thornton adding two free throws to trim GSW's lead to a dozen at 61-49 with 3:15 left.

Georgia Southwestern State answered with  a 9-1 stretch get their largest lead of the afternoon at 70-51 with 50 seconds remaining.

Five seconds later, Birch made a three-point play the old fashion way to get within 16 but GSW hit a 3-pointer for the last points of the game with 19 ticks on the clock.

Birch had seven points and four rebounds for SSU and Thornton came off the bench to score six.

Grant, who transferred to Savannah State from GSW, added six rebounds and four points while Byrd contributed five assists and three points. Ansley Hicks and Jashiyah Jones scored two points apiece.

Savannah State was out-rebounded 44 to 33 and missed all seven of their 3-point attempts. 

Although SSU shot 55.6 percent from the field in the second quarter, the Lady Tigers finished the non-conference game shooting 32.2 percent from the field and 64 percent from the free throw line.

SSU outscored Georgia Southwestern State 36 to 28 in the paint.

The Hurricanes (2-3) won the Peach Belt regular season and tournament last year and advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite 8 and finished with a 29-4 record. A strong program, Georgia Southwestern, earned a trip to the Div. II Sweet 16 in 2022-23 and made it to the second round of the Division II tournament a year earlier.

Savannah State will travel to EnMarket Arena in downtown Savannah to face USC Beaufort in the second annual River Rivalry on November 26 at 5:30 p.m.

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