MOBILE, Ala.-Although Savannah State outscored Spring Hill in the second half, the Badgers hot shooting in the first period was too much to overcome in the Tigers 86-70 loss on Monday night in the Outlaw Recreation Center.

The Tigers found themselves down 52-33 at the half but showed grit in the second half by outscoring Spring Hill 37-34 as they made 53.6 percent of their shots from the field.

Savannah State trailed by 20 points three times in the second period but used mini-runs to whittle their deficits to 15.

SSU was down 62-42 but a 10-5 run closed their gap to 15 with 10:21 left and a 5-0 spurt with just under eight minutes remaining trimmed Spring Hill's lead to 72-57.

During the final three minutes, the Tigers would trail by 15 on three occasions with the last being with 46 seconds showing.

Savannah State trailed by 18 in the closing seconds but a hook shot by Juan Gordon was the last points of the contest.

Three players from SSU finished in double figures with Qua King scoring 17 and Ayjay Plain and Jaydon Cousin adding 11 points apiece.

Plain also had four steals and three assists.

Spring Hill, who ended the game shooting 54.5 percent from the field and 50 percent from behind the arc, hit 20 of 31 shots from the floor in the opening twenty minutes.

The game was close for the first seven minutes until Spring Hill put together a 12-2 run to go ahead by 11.

Back-to-back layups by Plain and Cousin along with a 3-pointer by Jeremiah Barze cut SSU's deficit to 29-25 with just under eight minutes remaining but the Badgers finished the period outscoring Savannah State 23-8 to take a 19 point cushion into intermission.

The Tigers scored the first three points of the second half to get within 52-36 but Spring Hill responded with a dunk and a layup to extend their lead to 20.

Despite the loss and being out-rebounded 36 to 26, Savannah State had more points off turnovers (22), bench points (29) and points in the paint (36).

Barze and Javonte Landy scored eight points apiece, Jerry Maxinaud had five, Kasai Fontanez had four while Gordon, Michael Swift and Jordan Mikel all chipped in two points. Landy had a team-high four rebounds.

SSU (5-5, 3-3 SIAC) will try to bounce back against Clark Atlanta on January 4th at home.

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