Walter Moore Tigers Drop Road Games

Savannah State fell to 4-5 on the season after dropping road games last week. With the score tied at 49, Bowling Green out-scored SSU 11-2 down the stretch to defeat SSU 59-51 on December 3. Tracy Rankins scored 24 points for the Tigers while Louis Arnold had 13 points and 9 rebounds. SSU traveled to Pittsburgh, PA on Dec. 5 and came home with a 58-44 loss from Duquesne in the Chuck Cooper Classic. Trailing by 22 points with just over eight minutes left, SSU went on a 23-2 run to make the score 50-39 but that would be as close as SSU would get. Cedric Smith came off the bench to score 9 points for SSU while Arnold had 8 points and 10 rebounds. Preston Blackmon had 7 points and 7 assists.

Coastal Carolina Downs SSU Women

Savannah State saw their four game winning streak come to an end with a 49-35 loss from Coastal Carolina on Dec. 5 in Tiger Arena. CCU used a 14-2 run in the first half to grab a 14-6 lead and closed out the half with a 10-2 run to take a 24-12 halftime edge. SSU got within 13 with eight and a half minutes left in the game but a 6-0 by Coastal gave the visitors a 45-26 point lead with 4:20 left. Crissa Jackson had 8 points for Savannah State (6-3) while Brittany Gilbert added 7 points and Raven James grabbed 7 rebounds.

SSU Opens Indoor Track Season

Amara Jones and Vernon Williams each won first place in their events to lead Savannah State in the Christopher Newport Holiday Open in Newport News, VA on Dec. 5. Jones won the women's 200m with a time of 25.24 and Williams won the men's 400m with a time of 49.97. Jones was second in the 400m, Kendra Carter was third in the women's 55m and Marcus Stallworth was third in the men's 55m hurdles. Savannah State had a total of 12 top 10 finishes with the women getting five and the men earning seven.

Former Coaches Lose Jobs

A pair of former Savannah State football assistants became unemployed last week. Gary Harper, who was the defensive line coach at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, was one of three assistants fired on the Golden Lions staff and Nic Calcutta, who was the offensive coordinator at Howard, was one of four coaches fired on the Bison staff. Harper had been at UAPB since 2006 while Calcutta was in his first year at Howard.