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FVSU, LOC take SIAC tourney titles
Lut Williams
BCSP Editor
Things went according to plan in Sunday's women's half of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference basketball tournament championship in Birmingham.
The same can't be said for the men.
Regular season winner Fort Valley State completed a 25-0 sweep of its women's competition this season by putting on a second-half full-court blitz to knock off second-seed Clark Atlanta 79-69 in the ladies title game.
On the men's side, the first and second seeds, Claflin and Benedict, were sent packing in Saturday's semifinals making way for third and fourth seeds Lane and LeMoyne-Owen to battle it out for the title Sunday.
And battle they did, with LeMoyne-Owen prevailing with a hard-fought 64-61 win over the Dragons of Lane.
FVSU's full-court 1-2-2 pressure defense turned around a 32-30 halftime deficit in the women's final.
FVSU head coach Lonnie Bartley went away from his team's signature defense in the first half and decided to come back with it to open the second half. It resulted in a 24-8 run over the first nine minutes of the half putting his Lady Wildcats (26-4) up 54-40. CAU (26-4) could get no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Junior Shekiya Tarpkins led FVSU with 23 points, including 14 in the decisive second half. Tarpkins was 10 of 16 from the field and had 8 rebounds, 3 assists and four of the team's 14 steals. Tarpkins averaged 21 points and 5 steals in the three tournament games to earn the tournament MVP honor.
Senior SIAC Player of the Year Shantrell Moss of Clark Atlanta was again brilliant, tallying 27 points in a losing effort. Moss also gobbled up a game-high 18 rebounds. In three tournament games, the 5-9 product of Fort Lauderdale, Fl. averaged 29 points and 16 boards per game.
Bartley, who won his ninth tournament championship in his 25 years leading the Lady Cats, and first since 2003, will take his 15th team to the Div. II South Regionals as a result of the automatic bid that goes to the SIAC Tournament champion. Clark Atlanta also received an at-large bid when the field was announced Sunday night.
In a scrappy men's final, fourth-seeded LeMoyne-Owen (17-13) battled back from a 12-point halftime deficit (38-26) to down Lane.
The Magicians opened the second half on a 16-4 run to pull even at 42 with 13:46 left and took their first second-half lead at 56-55 on a Rashard Weathers follow shot with 4:45 to play.
From there the teams exchanged the lead five times before LOC went up for good 60-59 on tournament MVP Rasul Buluu's two free throws with 45.9 seconds left. The Magicians made just enough free throws in final half-minute to hold off the Panthers and give second-year coach Edward Newton his first title.
Buluu finished with 14 points and five rebounds. Junior starting point guard Maurice Mickens led LOC with 17 points and handed out six assists. Calvin Stoudemire had 10 points off the bench. Lane (22-8) was led by 13 points from Nick Beauregard, 12 each from Lincoln Blache and Rodney Chatman and 11 from Gregory Lott.
LeMoyne-Owen earned the conference's automatic bid to the men's South Region tournament as a result of its tourney title. They will be joined in the field by Claflin (24-3) and Benedict (24-5) who were both awarded at-large bids Sunday night.
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