This has been a rough year for both the Tennessee State men and women, as each has begun the year with a pair of road losses. Though the games were hard fought and close, the two losses only add to the troubles that have been endured this year as neither of the Tigers squad has a winning record. But there’s still plenty of time in the Ohio Valley Conference season, and each team at minimum wants to make it into the postseason tournament and have a chance to reach the NCAAs.
For a team it seemed that the Tigers were going to pull off an upset over Morehead last week on the road. They shot well much of the game, including making half their three pointers. But two things have repeatedly hurt the Tigers, resulting in their subpar 4-9 mark. The first is fading in the second. They had a two-point lead on Morehead State with almost 14 (13:54) minutes remaining, but then simply faded both offensively and defensively. Morehead State outscored them 31-23 to grab the 74-68 win. Head coach Brian “Penny” Collins would no doubt be pleased with this team’s defensive play, as they held Morehead State to 38.7 percent shooting from the field. Still, despite hitting 10 of 20 three-pointers the Tigers made too many bad decisions late. Travis Harper led the Tigers with 22 points, while Aaron Nkrumah and Carlous Williams each had 14.
Operating with host of new players the Tigers are still trying to get consistency and continuity from their first and second units. They have a chance to get right back into the OVC race as they have home games Thursday against Southeast Missouri State Thursday night and Little Rock Saturday afternoon.
That same issue, a lack of offensive cohesion, has also proven deadly for the Lady Tigers. They played a tremendous first half, building a five-point lead at 34-29. But everything turned bad in the second half. They went completely cold from the field, scoring just eight points in the third quarter and nine in the fourth, ultimately losing 68-51. Saniah Parker led the Tigers with 16 points and seven rebounds. Krystal Haddock added six points and Angel Hill chipped in with seven points off the bench. The Lady Tigers also had a good defensive effort, forcing 15 turnovers, resulting in 10 points on the offensive side.
But it didn’t matter as they were simply unable to provide any offensive spark over the final two quarters. Their record is also 4-9.
Both teams know that the upcoming Thursday/Saturday OVC home games are critical. Neither squad wants to begin the year 0-4. It will be quite interesting to see if either or both teams can bounce back and begin to get some much-needed victories.
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