SAVANNAH, Ga.- It will be a cat fight in Tiger Arena at 12 noon on March 7 when the Savannah State Lady Tigers play the Tuskegee Golden Tigers in the quarterfinals of  the 2024 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament.
 
Savannah State, the number one seed in the SIAC East, received a first round bye while Tuskegee is the 4 seed in SIAC West.
 
Tuskegee earned a berth in the conference quarterfinals by defeating Allen, the 5 seed in the SIAC East, by a score of 68-53 in Tiger Arena on March 5 in the second round of the tournament.
 
During the regular season the Lady Tigers defeated Tuskegee 60-51 on December 16 in Savannah.
 
In that game, Savannah State raced out to a 14-5 lead as they led the contest from start to finish.
 
Trailing by six at the end of the first quarter, Tuskegee scored just four points in the second quarter and committed nine turnovers while Savannah State scored 22 points, shooting 60 percent from the field and knocking down two of their three 3-point attempts.
 
SSU led 36-12 at the half but Tuskegee outscored Savannah State in the second half and finished the game with a 9-0 run to make the score look respectable.
 
Nyla Allen had a game-high 16 points and four assists for Savannah State while Ta'Quasia Lampkin pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds to go with her eight points, three steals and two blocks. Jashiyah Jones connected on three 3-pointers and finished the day with 11 points for the Lady Tigers.
 
SSU enters the tournament on a three-game winning streak and have won eight of their last nine contests.
 
Savannah State has the number three offense in the SIAC, averaging 68.1 points a game and has the number three defense, yielding 58.6 points a night. 
 
Led by All-SIAC First Team performers Nyla Allen and Amari Heard, the Lady Tigers own a 19-5 record and went 15-4 in SIAC play.
 
Allen averaged 12.9 points, 3.8 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.9 steals a game. She led SSU in free throw percentage (87%), assists (92)  and minutes played (34.5) and was second on the team in points (309), steals (45) and made field goals (100) and was third on the team in made 3-pointers (13).
 
The senior point guard led the SIAC in free throw percentage and was third in the conference in assists, minutes played and assist/turnover ratio (1.2).
 
Heard averaged 14.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 1.3 assists per game this season. She led the Lady Tigers in points (329), made field goals (145) and steals (550 and was second on the squad in rebounds (173).
 
Among the SIAC category leaders, Heard was third in the conference in field goal percentage at .465.
 
Other key players for Savannah State are Mya Byrd, Ta'Quasia Lampkin and Jashiyah Jones.
 
Byrd averaged 12.7 points, 1.9 steals, 3.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists and led the team with 53 made 3-pointers. Lampkin led the SIAC with a 10.3 rebounding average to go with her 8.2 points,1.9 steals and a team leading 26 blocks while Jones chipped in 6.1 points a game, hit 25 of her 3-point attempts and shot 81 percent from the free throw line.
 
The Lady Tigers can also count on Jacquece Alston (4.8 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.3 steals), Amani Hamilton (4.1 points, 2.9 rebounds) and Ja'Siiyah Holmes (4.8 points, 4.9 rebounds) for contributions.
 
Tuskegee averages 61.9 points a game and gives up 61.3 points a game. Sumaiyah Abdur-Rahim and Brittney Bolin both average 12 points a game for the Golden Tigers (15-9, 11-8 SIAC).