ORANGEBURG, SC – Junior guard Kourtney Williams tossed in a career-high 30 points and two other South Carolina State players also reached double figures as the Lady Bulldogs defeated visiting Florida A&M 68-57 Saturday in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference contest.

Graduate guards Dayshaun Richbow and Cabriel Duren added 19 and 17 points, respectively, in the victory which lifted Coach Doug Robertson's team to 5-9 overall and 3-1 in the MEAC. Williams and Richbow each had five rebounds to lead SC State on the boards, where the Lady Bulldogs enjoyed a 38-33 advantage.

SC State connected on 49 (23-48) percent of its shots from the field but was off on 12 of its 31 attempts from the foul line and made just three of 10 tries from three-point range.

Florida A&M made hit just 17 of 53 tries from the floor, a 32.1 percent accuracy, was 17 of 21 (81 percent) from the charity stripe and nailed 6 of 22 shots (27.3 percent) from behind the arc.

Taneka Rubin had 17 points and FAMU leading scorer Jasmine Grice 16 – six under her average -- to pace the visitors, who fell to 8-10 overall and 2-3 in the league. Tierra Prothro added 10 points and a game-high seven rebounds for the Lady Rattlers.

SC State, ahead 33-22 at the half, built its largest lead at 61-43 on a layup by Williams with 4:44 left but some sloppy play over the next three and a half minutes allowed FAMU to close the gap to eight – 63-55 – at the 1:10 mark before the Lady Bulldogs closed with a 6-2 run for the final margin.

Robertson praised the effort of Williams, whose 30-point effort surprised him, and also the play of Richbow and Duren, who took turns guarding Grice.

"First, I didn't know Kourtney Williams had 30 points," Robertson said. "But, looking back, she should have had 40 as she missed several layups and a few free throws.

"We played 30 minutes of solid basketball but had a few lapses down the stretch. But, overall I thought Williams had a fantastic performance. She got a lot of help from Duren and Richbow, who set the tempo the way we wanted it for most of the game.
"And, I thought we did a good job in holding Grice to 16 points. We ran a few schemes on defense to slow her down and she helped by missing a few shots."

The Lady Bulldogs return to the court Monday when they host Bethune-Cookman in another league doubleheader, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
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