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By Michael MacEachern and Ronnie Hiers Savannah College of Art and Design women’s basketball player Beth Henson recorded her sixth double-double of the season as the Bees defeated Agnes Scott College 59-49 Dec. 16 at the Woodruff Physical Activities Building in Decatur. The Bees improved to 6-11 for the season, while the Scotties fell to 1-4. SCAD plays again Jan. 15, opening up the Florida Sun Conference schedule against Florida Memorial College in a 1 p.m. contest in Miami. Henson, who was named the Florida Sun Conference Player of the Week, led the Bees with 16 points and 13 rebounds, while Ashley Hart added 16 points. Alexis AuBuchon finished with 10 points. In the first 13 minutes of the first half, there were seven lead changes as both teams battled for control. The Bees tied the game at 19 on a jumper by Deanna Copeland with 6:46 left to play in the half. SCAD went on a 10-0 run over the next four minutes and pulled ahead 29-19 on a Henson jumper with 2:49 remaining. However, Agnes Scott battled back and went on an 11-0 run in the final minutes of the half, heading to the locker room with a 31-29 lead. Both teams continued to battle it out in the second half, with the Scotties getting their biggest lead of the game 36-30 on a jumper from Jamenda Whitehead with 15:57 left. Dakota Whitney hit a three-pointer to give SCAD a 50-49 advantage with 5:11 remaining. SCAD, which held Agnes Scott to one point over the final 8:38 of the game, scored the game’s final nine points. Whitehead’s 19 points led Agnes Scott. Whitney Morgan and Nicole Mitchell each added 10. Shorter College jumped out to a 23-point lead early in the second half and then held off the Bees in the final minutes to record a 67-54 decision Dec. 12 at the Ron Love Athletic Center at Savannah High School. SCAD took its only lead of the game at 10-9 on a jumper by AuBuchon with 12:52 remaining in the first half. Shorter’s defense stiffened as they used a 16-0 run over the next 7:18 to take a 25-10 lead on a steal and a layup from Fallon Wright with 5:57 left. During the drought, the Bees, who shot 25.8 percent (8 of 31) in the first half, went 0-9 from the field. Shorter, which shot 43.3 percent (13 of 30) from the field in the opening 20 minutes, took a 40-19 lead at the half. The Hawks pushed their lead to 23 points (42-19) on a layup by Laketa Riddle in the opening seconds of the second half before the Bees slowly began chipping away at the deficit. SCAD’s defense held the Hawks to five baskets in the second half as Shorter shot 16.1 percent (5 of 31) from the floor. The Bees used a 9-0 run over a 67-second span to pull within nine points at 59-50 on Liz Racker’s jumper in the paint with 3:37 remaining. However, both teams went scoreless over the next 2:50. Shorter, which shot 83.3 percent (25 of 30) from the free throw line, was perfect (8 of 8) from the charity stripe in the final 47 seconds to hold off the Bees. Riddle and Kerri Sparks led the Hawks with 12 points each, while Riddle also added a game-high 16 rebounds. Whitney paced the Bees with 15 points, while Henson had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Racker added nine points and Kacie Moreland grabbed eight rebounds off the bench for SCAD. Men’s basketball splits games at AASU tournament Armstrong Atlantic State University rallied to record a 68-66 decision over SCAD in the final men’s basketball game of the AASU Chatham Orthopaedic Holiday Basketball Classic at Alumni Arena Dec. 18. It was the first meeting on the basketball court for the two Savannah institutions. The Pirates, who are members of the NCAA Division II Peach Beach Conference, improved to 6-3. The Bees, who are members of the NAIA Florida Sun Conference, nearly knocked off their second consecutive NCAA Division II school in as many nights and fell to 5-9. SCAD returns to action Jan. 3 with a 7:30 p.m. contest against Georgia College & State University at Savannah High School. SCAD, which led most of the game, used six unanswered points -- including four from Ryan Kaminski -- to open a 22-15 lead with 7:38 remaining in the first half. However, the Pirates closed the half on a 6-1 run to tie the game at 34 on a putback by Alex Carter as time expired. SCAD started the second half on a 7-2 spurt to open up a five-point cushion (41-36) on a three-pointer by Gerard Bowden with 17:42 left. The Bees maintained their five-point lead (57-52) with 8:03 remaining on an old-fashioned three-point play by Shaun Watson, who was named the Player of the Week in the Florida Sun. AASU took its first lead of the second half at 59-57 on Sean Alarcon’s three-pointer with 5:23 left that capped a 7-0 run by the Pirates. The teams exchanged the lead several times before Lorenzo Lawrence’s free throw with 1:28 remaining gave the Pirates the lead for good at 65-64. Two free throws by Jamal Galloway and another by Lawrence gave AASU a 68-64 lead with nine seconds left. Kaminski’s layup with 1.2 seconds remaining cut the AASU lead in half at 68-66, but wasn’t enough to win the game for the Bees. Each team placed four players in double figures, led by Lawrence, who had 20 points for the Pirates. Brian Taylor and Carter each had double-doubles with 10 points and 10 rebounds for AASU, while SCAD was led by Bowden’s 18 points. Kaminski and Watson chipped in 14 points each, while Nathan Henderson added 10. Watson scored 12 of his career-high 23 points in the second half as the men’s basketball team rallied from a four-point halftime deficit to defeat the University of South Carolina at Aiken 72-58 Dec. 17 at the AASU tournament. USCA, which led by as many seven points (26-19) late in the first half, took a 30-26 advantage at the half. SCAD started the second half on a 15-5 run to take a six-point lead at 41-35 on a jumper by Watson with 12:29 remaining. The Pacers tied the game at 41 on back-to-back three-pointers from Josh Poston and Trent Boyd, before the Bees stung the Pacers with a 15-1 run over the next five minutes and took a 56-42 lead on an Owen Oliver free throw with 6:48 left. Henderson scored seven of his nine points in the decisive run by SCAD. The Bees held the Pacers to 32.8 percent shooting from the floor (21 of 64), including 27.3 percent (9 of 33) in the game’s final 20 minutes. SCAD also held an advantage from the charity stripe as the Bees went 25 of 43 from the free throw line while USCA was 13 of 21. Kaminski added 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds for the Bees, while Oliver pulled down 10 rebounds. Bowden tallied 10 points for SCAD. No USCA player reached double figures as Marcus Robinson had nine points. Payne named to NAIA Volleyball Honorable Mention All-America Team Volleyball player Cristina Payne has been named an honorable mention selection to the NAIA All-America Team. Payne, a freshman hitter from Seattle, Wash., led the Bees this past season in kills (463) and service aces (113). Her 463 kills broke the school’s single-season mark of 457, set by Kim Edwards in 2001. Payne, who was named the Florida Sun Conference Player of the Year, led the league in kills per game (4.10) and service aces per game (1.00). She picked up two conference player of the week awards during the season and also finished second on the team in hitting percentage (.302) and third in digs (234). SCAD finished the season at 22-11 and won its first Region XIV Championship and a trip to the NAIA Volleyball National Championship in San Diego, Calif. Payne is the third SCAD student-athlete to be named to the All-America team since the Bees rejoined the NAIA in 2003. Men’s basketball player Keith Davis was an honorable mention selection last season and cross country runner Hilary White was named an All-American this fall. MacEachern is sports information director, and Hiers is assistant sports information director. |
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