WILBERFORCE, Oh.- The Savannah State women's basketball team capped their two-game Midwest road trip by suffering a 55-49 loss to Central State in a game played on Monday night at Beacom/Lewis Gym.

Amani Hamilton was the lone Lady Tiger in double figures with 12 points. She also had eight rebounds and two steals.

Kayla Grant finished with a team-high 11 rebounds to go with her eight points for SSU.

As a team, Savannah State had their worst offensive output of the season shooting 28.3 percent from the field. SSU was able to out-rebound the Marauders 46 to 40.

The Lady Tigers trailed 9-6 in the the first quarter but finished the final 6:42 with ten unanswered point to go ahead 16-9.

A 3-pointer by Jayden Boykin to open the second quarter expanded the SSU advantage to 19-9 but Central State kept chipping away at their deficit.

The Marauders led 29-25 with 1:29 left but a free throw by Jazmin Thornton along with a layup and two free throws by Hamilton sent Savannah State into the half with a 30-29 edge.

Central State made a layup to start the second half which gave them a 31-30 lead. They would never trail again the rest of the game.

With less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter,SSU trailed by three but two free throws by Mya Byrd cut their deficit to 39-38. However, CSU finished the quarter with a 9-0 run to start the fourth quarter with a 48-38 lead.

Back-to-back layups by Thornton and K'lya Hankerson to begin the fourth quarter drew SSU with six and a layup by Grant cut Savannah State's deficit to 52-47 at the 3:19 mark but the Lady Tigers would get no closer.

CSU ran their lead back to eight before two free throws by Boykin with 24 seconds left were the final points of the game.

Byrd finished with seven points and five rebounds, Alayah Birch had six points and three assists, Thornton and Boykin ended the game with five points each, Hankerson had four points and six rebounds and Raven Birt chipped in two points.

The loss dropped Savannah State to 3-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play.

SSU will close out their non-conference slate on Sunday, Novemer 8th with a 4 p.m. tip against Johnson C. Smith in Tiger Arena.

Savannah State lost to JCSU 75-71 in overtime on November 10 as part of the CIAA/SIAC Challenge in a game played in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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