After suffering a nasty setback in South Carolina against Benedict College, the Tuskegee Tigerettes found a way to navigate through the rest of their SIAC road trip during the MLK weekend and picked up consecutive victories against Kentucky State in Frankfort and Lane in Tennessee. The loss against the Tigers to start the road trip was just the third loss for
Tarsha Askew's team since the month of December, as the two latest wins have allowed the women to improve to an overall record of 9-7 (5-2 in the SIAC). Tuskegee has won nine of their last 12 games after starting off the season without picking up a win in the month of November, and TU once again leads the SIAC West Division as the only team with a winning record either overall or in conference play.
Tuskegee's loss against Benedict College on Jan. 16th was the worst loss of the season. Much like the Tigerettes last loss on the road against Clark Atlanta, the lead for the home team was in single digits at halftime, with Benedict being in striking distance at a 36-30 margin. But, the Lady Tigers were able to put the defensive clamps down on the Tigerettes, as TU shot a worse percentage in the second half than in the first (29.2 percent to 34.8 percent).
Kajuanna Rivers struggled in the contest, scoring only three points while being assessed a technical foul.
Marie McAbee was the leading scorer in the game, as she finished with 17 points in the losing effort to go with a team-high seven rebounds. Benedict had three ladies score in double digits, as the trio of Kadeeja Vaughn, Amanda Toliver and Latoya Fairley combined for 45 of the home team's 74 total points.
Fortunes turned around for the rest of the road trip, as the Tigerettes picked up a 61-53 victory over Kentucky State University on Saturday night. Despite shooting just 24 percent from the field in the second half, the Thorobrettes were unable to do much after halftime, as they only outscored TU 29-27 after shooting just over 30 percent for the entire game. Rivers had her best game of the trip, as she finished with a game-high of 16 points. McAbee put up big numbers in earning a double-double, finishing with 15 points and 14 rebounds.
Chelsea Azore also chipped in a double-double for TU, with 11 points to go with 10 rebounds. For KSU, Brieona Warner tied Rivers' game-high in scoring with 16 points of her own, and Teeuntra Moore had a 14 point, 12 rebound double-double. But, six of the seven other active Thorobrettes couldn't finish the game with more than five points scored.
The Tigerettes finished the road trip in Jackson, Tenn. with a 71-60 victory over the Lady Dragons on MLK Day to keep them winless on the season. Four different Tuskegee players finished with double-digit scoring, led by McAbee with game highs of 19 points and nine rebounds. Tuskegee outscored Lane 25-10 off of the bench, and led for the rest of the game after McAbee drilled a three-pointer three minutes into the game to push TU ahead 8-5.
Alannah Vincent (12 points), Rivers (11 points) and
Natasha Williams (10 points) were the other three double-digit scorers for the Tigerettes.
Tuskegee will play one final road game, as the ladies kick off next week with a trip to Tuscaloosa to play Stillman on Monday. Home games will wrap up the week, as TU will square off against Miles and LeMoyne-Owen on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
