Box Score ORANGEBURG, S.C. – Senior
Kourtney Williams scored a career-high 37 points to lead South Carolina State to a 79-75 win over visiting Norfolk State Saturday in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference contest at Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center.
Williams, who was coming off her second-lowest season output of eight points in a 64-59 win at Maryland Eastern Shore on Monday, had nine of her total in the last four and half minutes after the Lady Spartans had erased a 13-point second-half deficit.
Amber Howard added 11 points, including a critical 3-pointer that broke a 67-all tie with 2:46 left, and six assists for SC State.
Jasmine Coleman and
Ashleigh Outler contributed 10 points each in the win, the third in a row for the Lady Bulldogs, who improved to 11-7 overall and 4-3 in the league.
Persephone Goodwin led SC State on the boards with eight, while Coleman contributed seven rebounds for Coach Doug Robertson's squad.
Rae Carbo had 19 points and Koryn Lawrence 18 to pace the Spartans, who had their three-game win streak snapped in falling to 6-12 and 5-2 in the MEAC. Nia Roberts added 12 points and her sister, Kayla Roberts, pulled down a game-high 13 boards to go with nine points in the loss.
SC State, behind 19 first-half points by Williams, took a 34-27 lead to the locker room. Robertson's squad began the second half on a 25-19 run to build its biggest lead of the game, 59-46, when Outler scored on a layup with 8:19 showing.
Norfolk State took advantage of some Lady Bulldog lapses on defense to get back in the contest. Jazamine Gray, who tallied just six points in the game, scored on a driving layup with 8:01 to play to spark a 19-6 Lady Spartan run to deadlock the contest at 65-all with 3:29 left.
Williams, who was 15-17 from the charity stripe in the contest, got two from the line to put SC State ahead 67-65 with 3:14 remaining but Lawrence got a short jumper to tie the contest at 67 with 3:06 to play.
Howard, the three-point percentage leader in the MEAC at .392, canned her second shot from long range to put her team out front 70-67 with just 2:46 on the clock. Williams followed with a backdoor layup off an assist from Howard, then connected on a 3-pointer for a 75-67 Lady Bulldog advantage with just 1:36 on the clock. The visitors got to within three points twice but Howard made three of four attempts from the line as SC State hung on for the win.
SC State will return to the court Monday, when the Lady Bulldogs host Hampton in an MEAC doubleheader, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
