Box Score ORANGEBURG, SC – South Carolina State junior
Jasmine Coleman put back a
Jazzmine Johnson miss with 1:02 on the clock, then had a key steal with just 25 seconds left to give the Lady Bulldogs a 64-62 win over Delaware State Saturday.
Following two Lady Hornet fouls, Johnson went to the line with eight seconds to play but missed the front end of a one-and-one attempt and SC State had to survive a 3-point attempt by Aaliyah Davis to secure the victory, which gave Coach Doug Robertson's team a sweep of the series this season. SC State defeated the Lady Hornets 65-60 at Dover exactly two weeks ago.
Senior
Kourtney Williams, eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for her career midway through the second half, had a game-high 28 points to lead SC State. Coleman and
Amber Howard added nine each. Coleman also had a career-high 12 rebounds and two blocks in the win, which lifted the Lady Bulldogs to 12-8 and 5-4 in the MEAC.
Delaware State had four players in double figures, led by Tierra Hawkins with 16. N'Kayah Kersey added 15 points and six assists before fouling out in the closing seconds. Amber Bogard finished with 14 points and Mikah Aldridge had 13 points a team-high eight boards in the loss, which dropped the visitors to 3-16 and 1-6 in the league.
The Lady Hornets won the rebounding battle 42-36 and also nailed 45.1 percent of their shots to just 36.2 percent for SC State, however, had the edge in turnovers with just nine to 17 for the visitors.
SC State trailed for most the first half before ending the opening stanza with a 10-2 run to take a 34-31 lead to the locker room.
Robertson's team built a 41-33 lead on a Williams steal and short jumper with 16:27 showing. The Hornets trimmed the lead to one, 53-52, on a 3-pointer by Aldridge at the 6:57 mark. Williams answered with her own jumper for behind the arc to give the host a 56-52 edge with 6:48 to play but a 6-2 Lady Hornet spree pulled the Lady Hornets into a 58-all tie when Hawkins got an inside basket with 4:27 showing.
The Lady Hornets took their first lead of the second half, 60-58, on two foul shots by Bogard at the 3:38 mark but Johnson got a layup for SC State to deadlock the contest at 60-all with 3:30 showing.
The game was tied twice more, the last time at 62-all when Hawkins got a layup for Delaware State with 1:25 on the clock.
Robertson did not go for the timeout and SC State got the ball in the frontcourt quickly and Johnson got off a medium range jumper from the left side with 1:08 showing but it was off the mark, however, Coleman grabbed the rebound and put in a layup for a 64-62 SC State lead and the Lady Bulldogs hung on for the win.
SC State hits the road to play at Coppin State at 2 p.m. on Saturday and at Morgan State at 5:30 p.m. on Monday in Baltimore, Md.
