Claflin Opens SIAC Tournament with Tuskegee

Birmingham, Ala. – The Claflin University men’s basketball team will face Tuskegee University in the opening round of the 2018 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) basketball tournament. Tip-off is set for 4:45 p.m. (CST) Tuesday, Feb. 27 at the Bill Harris Arena inside the Birmingham Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala. The single elimination tournament, which will run February 26-March 3, will be held at the All games will be available via live stats at http://stat.center/scorerstable-live.html. Live video link will be available on game-day.

Claflin, 21-6, will enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed in the East Division while Tuskegee, 7-21 enters as the No. 6 in the West Division.

This will be the second meeting of the season between the two.  In the earlier meeting in Orangeburg (Jan. 6, 2018) Claflin defeated Tuskegee 73-51.

Benjamin “Tre” Williams led the Panthers in scoring with 16 points followed by Austin Lawton with 11 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Jaleel Charles scored nine points and pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds along with four blocked shots for Claflin, while Tondric Johnson also added nine points.

Williams and Johnson continued their hot shooting from three-point land, combining for seven. Williams had four and Johnson added three. The duo knocked down five apiece against Miles College last week.

Tuskegee was led by James Eads with 15 points and Jason Pasley at 13.

Charles leads the Panthers in scoring and rebounding at 14 points and eight rebounds.  Williams is the only other Claflin player averaging in the double figures at 12.9 points.

Tuskegee is led in scoring and rebounding by Gregg Boyd and Jason Pasley who are averaging 19 and 5.0, respectively.

Should Claflin men they will play the winner of the Lane/Paine game at 3:15 p.m. (CST) on Thursday (Feb. 28).