Coleman Leads SSU Past Wildcats

January 10, 2008
DAYTONA BEACH, Fl- Lazarius Coleman scored 16 points and pulled down eight rebounds to lead Savannah State past Bethune-Cookman 50-36 at Moore Gym before a crowd of 2,129.

Anthony Jones added 12 points for the Tigers and Joseph Flegler chipped in 10.

SSU improved to 9-13 while the Wildcats now have a 6-8 mark.

The Tigers led from start to finish as they shot 64.7 percent from the field in the opening half and 42.9 percent from beyond the arc.

Leading 8-5, SSU scored the next seven points to go ahead 15-5 with 9:32 on the clock. The Tigers expanded their advantage to 20-7 with 6:51 remaining.

Savannah State held a 10 point lead but a 3-pointer by Flegler and a jumper by Jones gave SSU its biggest lead of the half at 15 with 1:53 left.

The Tigers led 27-15 at the half.

Bethune-Cookman trailed by 17 with just under 13 minutes left in the game but were able to whittle SSU's lead down to 10 with 3:58 remaining. However, Savannah State answered with a layup by Coleman and two free throws by Patrick Hardy to push their lead back to 14 and the Wildcats never threatened again.

John Holmes led Bethune-Cookman with 13 points.

Savannah State ended the game shooting 56 percent from the floor while holding B-CU to 32 percent.