The Lady Marauders of Central State University disposed of the Lady Panthers from Clark Atlanta, 79-51, in Tuesday's opening round of the 2016 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (S-I-A-C) Women's Basketball Tournament in Birmingham, Ala.
CSU improved to 14-13 overall with the win while the Panthers finished the season with a 6-21 mark.
The Marauders dominated the entire game and were led by Ghameerah McCullers who recorded 13 points and 8 rebounds. McCullers also added 4 steals, 3 assists and a single turnover. Her back court teammate Sierra Harley finished with 10 points.
CSU used a significant size advantage and ability to penetrate to outscore CAU, 44-10, in the paint. The Lady Marauders also forced CAU into 29 turnovers and gained a 33-11 edge in points scored off giveaways. Perhaps the most dominating stat of the night was CSU's 25-0 advantage in second chance points.
"We played well as a team tonight," said CSU Head Coach Sheba Harris. "We made a few tweaks to our lineup and the ladies came out ready to play from the opening tip."
CSU, who lost to the same Clark-Atlanta team by 22 points back in December, have now won four of the last five games. McCullers reflected on her team's growth since the early December loss to Clark-Atlanta.
"We are a different team and we are more on the same page than we were a few months ago," explained McCullers. "In addition, I think the postseason brings more focus and attention to detail. We executed well tonight and we know we have to win or the season comes to an end."
Waiting for Central State in the second round is an Albany State team that went 12-4 in SIAC East Division play. ASU earned the No. 2 seed in the east and a bye in the first round of this year's tournament. In the only meeting this season, ASU topped CSU, 70-50, on Jan. 2.
"I expect our leaders to come out and continue to play with intensity," CSU Head Coach Sheba Harris said. "We are a much different team than we were when we played them back in January and I expect us to compete for the full forty minutes of the game."
CSU and ASU are scheduled to tip-off at 5:30 pm (cst) on Thursday in Bill Harris Arena at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
All tournament games will be held in Bill Harris Arena at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
Fans will be able to watch live video of Central State's tournament runs on the Marauder Sports Streaming Channel at
http://www.maraudersports.com/watch/ For more information on the SIAC Tournament, go to -
http://thesiac.com/news/2016/1/14/WBBALL_0... For more information on Marauder Athletics, please visit –
www.maraudersports.com
Posted By: Reginald Culpepper
Wednesday, March 2nd 2016 at 5:37PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
