The Tuskegee Tigerettes are continuing to hit their stride as they roll into conference play, picking up two of their three conference wins to start the season within the past week. On Monday night,
Tarsha Askew's team improved to 7-6 overall (3-1 in the SIAC) by handing the Claflin Lady Panthers (8-7; 4-1 in SIAC) their first loss of the season in the conference with a 67-56 victory. The win is a great bounce back for the ladies, who suffered a 21-point loss to reigning SIAC Champion Clark Atlanta on Saturday night, in a 84-63 setback. But the loss was a speed bump for TU, who started the week off with an 88-73 victory on the road against Fort Valley State last Thursday.
In the two victories, Tuskegee senior
Kajuanna Rivers continued her scoring streak. The point guard ended up with 28 points against FVSU, and had another 20 points in the home win against Claflin. She struggled against Clark Atlanta, as she only finished with a couple of points, but she still leads the team in scoring at 15.5 points per game. Valuable contributions are also being made by
Marie McAbee, and
Alannah Vincent. McAbee had a monster game against the Lady Wildcats to start the road trip, as she had 23 points and 16 boards in the victory. Vincent had her high-scoring game in the loss to Clark Atlanta, dropping 20 points and grabbing eight rebounds in 26 minutes.
In the win against Claflin on Monday, Tuskegee led by as many as 18 points with 13:24 remaining before Claflin changed their strategy and started pressing on the Tigerette back court, forcing pressure and multiple turnovers. Over the next 4:09, the Lady Panthers went on a 13-2 run, cutting the lead for the home team down to just seven points, at 42-40. The lead would fluctuate wildly for the rest of the game. The Tigerettes led by as many as 11 points with 4:20 left, but another 8-0 run by the visitors trimmed the lead down to the closet it came in the second half, at 56-53 with 2:40 remaining. Tuskegee then outscored Claflin 11-3, to finally put the game out of reach.
Saturday's loss against Clark Atlanta was very competitive in the opening half, with TU leading by as many as five points due to a
Natasha Williams layup with 12:04 left to go ahead at 15-10 in the opening half. Erika Sumpter hit a free throw to give Tuskegee their final lead of the game at 18-17 withj 8:54 remaining. But, Clark Atlanta only held a 34-29 lead at halftime, and that was after Conisha Hicks hit a last-second jumper to extend the lead. The struggle for the Tigerettes came after halftime, as CAU outscored the Tigerettes 22-8 in a six-minute stretch that began at the 16-minute mark when Clark Atlanta only had a seven-point lead at 42-35. Tuskegee shot 33.3 percent from the field for the game, while Clark Atlanta shot 57.1 percent and 73.9 percent in the second half alone (17-of-23).
The easiest win for the Tigerettes came during their first game on the road trip against Fort Valley State. After trailing to FVSU by as many as five in the opening half, Tuskegee rallied by and led by as many as 13 points before going into the locker room with a halftime lead of 33-24. The lead was extended by a 12-3 run to start the second half, which was capped by a layup from McAbee to give the Tigerettes a 45-27 lead with 16:37 remaining. Tuskegee led by as many as 21 points in the second half, before eventually closing out the game while shooting 56.3 percent in the second half.
A season-long four-game road trip begins for Tuskegee, as road games in South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee await. The road trip wraps up with a trip to Tuscaloosa to play Stillman, before finally playing back at the Daniel 'Chappie' James Center Jan. 30th against Miles College.
