TIFTON, Ga. – The Fort Valley
State University Wildcats overcame an 11 point second half
deficit to edge the Pirates of Armstrong Atlantic State 47-46 in
the inaugural Wildcat Basketball Classic played in Tifton,
Georgia.Ray Northern (13 points) and Kendall Ruffin (12 points) led the Wildcats (1-0) in scoring. Three Wildcats (Ruffin, Kenneth Saunders and Desmond Williams) led the team in rebounding with five each. Saunders also led the ‘Cats in blocked shots with four, and he was joined by Kedrione Harris who was the top scorer off the bench with six points and he too had a good defensive outing with three blocked shots.
Armstrong Atlantic State (3-1) got 12 points and a game high nine rebounds from forward Bryan Taylor. Patrick Sanou also scored in double figures for the Pirates with 10 points.
Armstrong Atlantic scored the first six points of the game, and managed to keep the Wildcats at arms length for all of the first period. At the end of the first half, the score was 26-19 in favor of Armstrong Atlantic.
Second half play saw the Pirates score the first four points of the period to go up by 11 (30-19) with 18:29 left in the game. Fort Valley then went on a 17-7 run to close to within a point (37-36) with 12:22 left on the clock. The Wildcats later tied the game at 40-all at the 9:31 mark thanks to a lay-up by Ruffin.
Fort Valley then went up by four points (44-40) with 5:21 left, but the Pirates, looking to stay undefeated on the season and on the road, grabbed the lead back at 46-44 on a jumper by Taylor.
Northern closed the gap to one point 46-45 when he hit the back end of a two shot foul. Northern was fouled again with :27 seconds left, and the junior from Leesburg drained both free throws to give Fort Valley the lead at 47-46. Armstrong Atlantic then got off a shot with :08 seconds remaining, but time ran out as both teams were in a mad scramble for the ball.
For the game Fort Valley shot 31.4% from the field, while Armstrong Atlantic canned 35.6% of its field goals. The difference in the game was free throw shooting as the Wildcats canned 12 of 14 freebies (85.7%) compared to the Pirates’ 11 of 14 shooting (78.6%) from the charity stripe.