Claflin loses to Fort Valley State, drops third-straight game

Orangeburg, S.C. — The Claflin University men’s basketball suffered their third straight setback, falling to Fort Valley State University (FVSU), 69-58, in a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) East Division contest at the Tullis Arena.

The loss dropped Claflin to 17-4 overall and 10-3 in the SIAC.

Austin Lawton and Benjamin “Tre” Williams led the Panthers in a losing effort with 15 points each. Lawson also led Claflin on the boards with seven rebounds and four blocked shots.

FVSU, 10-11 and 7-6, was led by Walter Foster with 16 points and Jaylon McMillan at 11 points.

Trailing 47-28 at intermission, the Panthers opened the second half with a 7-3 run, closing the gap to 50-35 with 14:54 left.

Claflin rallied to within 10, 59-49, with 5:39 left on a short range jumper from Lawton. The 10-point deficit would be the closest for Claflin until Tondric Johnson’s two-point basket with 1:15 left, cut the Wildcats lead to 67-58.

FVSU scored the game final basket for the 11-point victory.

In the first eight minutes of the game, it was all FVSU as the Wildcats build a double-digit lead at 17-4.

Following a dunk by Lawton for Claflin, cutting the FVSU lead to 17-6, the Wildcats scored the next five points to go up 22-6 at the 9:23 mark. At that point, the Panthers were shooting just 20% (4-of-20) from the field with three turnovers.

The next 5-plus minutes saw FVSU pushed its lead to 21 points at 36-15 by outscoring the Panthers 14-9 over that span.

Claflin did manage to cut the FVSU lead under the 20-point mark at the half by outscoring the Wildcats 13-11 over the last five minutes to trail by 47-28.

“Tre” Williams and Lawton had nine points for the Panthers in the half.

FVSU ended the first having shooting a sizzling 60.7% (17-of-28) from the field with six three-pointers. Claflin finished the half at 30.3% (10-of-33) and no three-pointers in 12 attempts.

Claflin will return action Monday (Jan. 29) at home against Albany State University at 7:30 p.m. It will be Military/ROTC Night on the Claflin campus. Military personnel in uniform or with a valid ID and visiting ROTC students in uniform will be admitted for a special price.  Tickets must be purchased at the ticket window to receive the special price.

Claflin Athletics contributed to the writing of this article.