Benedict's Lady Tigers Send Fort Valley Lady Wildcats Packing

Experience is often the best teacher, and such is the case for the Benedict Tigers women’s basketball team against Fort Valley Lady Wildcats

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Experience is often the best teacher, and such is the case for the Benedict Tigers women’s basketball team. They’ve overcome some early season struggles and after Saturday’s 98-83 win over Fort Valley, find themselves at 16-6 on the season, 10-2 in the SIAC.

The Tigers were dealt an early season blow when starting point guard Mahogany Randall went down with a torn Achilles. From there Tigers had to learn to manage and while head coach James Rice feels they’re not quite peaking, he believes they showing more consistent flashes of who they are.

“We’re getting a little bit better but not peaking yet. I think we'll be there at the end of February. That's our plan,” he said. “We’ve just got to take care of what's right in front of us. “Don't look too far ahead, don't worry about anything else.”

The game started with a 13-3 run by the Tigers and they never looked back, as they shot a blistering 60 percent and 65.2 percent from the field in the second and third quarter respectively. Rice said the offensive philosophy was simple.

“If you’re open take the shot,” he said. “I thought we were taking rhythm shots, moving the ball around and finding the open shooter. We got a lot of shooters on this team.”

Six Tigers finished in double figures with Ay’Anna Bey leading the way with 21 points Wykira Johnson-Kelly finished with 18 points, Ayanna Armstead and Keondra Archie both has 13 apiece, Jasmine Gholson scored 12 and Shanassia White rounded out the top scorers with 10.

The Tigers are currently second in the SIAC East and as they work to repeat as SIAC champions, Rice said he hopes the bumps they’ve had along this way will have prepared them.

“Going through the ups and downs, they’ve learned how to handle it as players,” he said. They’ve had some success and can now see themselves being successful, especially the young players, the freshmen.”

The Tigers are back in action Monday when they host Clark Atlanta at 5:30 PM ET.

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