Claflin Holds Off Shaw in CIAA Contest

Claflin Holds Off Shaw in CIAA Contest

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Orangeburg, S.C. – The Panthers of Claflin University withstood a late second-half comeback by Shaw University, defeating the Bears, 65-61, in a Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) basketball contest on Monday (Jan. 6) at the Tullis Arena.
 
With the win, Claflin snapped a two-game losing streak in lifting its season record to 6-9 overall and 5-5 against CIAA team. The Panthers also improved to 3-2 in the Southern Division.
 
Cornellius Reynolds led three Claflin players with in double-figures with 13.  Reynolds recorded a double-double finishing with 12 rebounds. Also scoring in double-figures for the Panthers was Rodney Prichard and Austin Lawton who dropped in 10 apiece.  Lawton finished the game with eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Triston Thompson contributed eight points with six assists a block and a steal.
 
Shaw, now 5-7 and 1-3 in the CIAA, was led in scoring by the nation's leading scorer Amir Hinton with a game-high 26 points.
 
After leading 30-27 at the half, the Panthers pulled away from Shaw over the course of the second half, increasing their margin to 10, 58-48, with 2:47 left in the game on a dunk from Haneef Britt.
 
The Bears quickly wiped out the deficit by scoring 10 unanswered points, tying the contest at 58-58 on a dunk from Hinton with 1:14 left.
 
The tie would last only 27 seconds as Reynolds scored on a layup from an assist by Thompson, putting the Panthers up for good at 60-58 with 47 seconds left. From that point, Claflin outscored Shaw 5-3 in the final 28 seconds.
 
In the first half, Shaw reeled off 10 of the game's first 11 points over a five-minute span to lead 10-1. The Bears maintain its lead until Austin Lawton tip-in off tied the game at 20-all with 5:20 left in the half.
 
After another tie at 22-22, Romero Hill presented Claflin its second lead of the half 24-22 on a layup at the 3:54 mark.
 
After Shaw regained the lead at 25-24, Lawton put Claflin up for good in the half at 26-25 at the 2:30 mark with an inside score.
 
Claflin finished the half by scoring four of the last six points to lead 30-27.
 
Claflin will return to action next Wednesday, Jan. 16, when they host Virginia State University in a CIAA matchup.  The game is a make-up game which was postponed from Dec. 11.
 
The Panthers will then hit the road for straight games. The road trip begins at Livingstone University (Jan. 19) followed by Fayetteville State University (Jan. 21), Johnson C. Smith University (Jan. 28 and concludes with Benedict College (Jan. 31).