Atlanta, GA- The Lady Wildcats of Fort Valley State University (FVSU) (22-9) are back on top of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) after a 69-54 win over the Miles College Lady Bears (21-8) to capture the 2011 SIAC Women's Basketball Championship. The win gives FVSU Head Coach Lonnie Bartley his 10th SIAC title. This was the second Lady Wildcats championship in the past three years.
In a closely contested first half, there were four ties and two lead changes. With 4:18 remaining before the intermission, the Lady Bears held their largest lead of the half, 28-20. However, the nine-time SIAC Champion Lady Wildcats ended the first half with a 13-3 scoring run to take a 33-31 halftime lead.
With a two point lead to start the second half, the Lady Wildcats went on a 12-4 scoring run and pushed the lead to 12 points with 12:31 left in the game. After a Miles timeout, FVSU went on another 6-2 scoring run to take their largest lead of the game, 53-39. In response, the Lady Bears went on a 7-0 scoring run of their own to slice the Lady Wildcats lead to seven points; 53-46 with 6:45 left.
The Lady Wildcats answered that run with a 6-3 scoring run with 3:17 remaining to forge ahead by 10 points (57-49). Afterward, the Lady Bears made one more surge and cut the Lady Wildcats lead to seven points (59-52) with 3:07 remaining. That would be as close as Miles would come. The Lady Wildcats maintained a comfortable lead for the rest of the game to claim the title with a 69-54 victory.
Point guard
Yasheeka Jones led a trio of FVSU players in double-figures with 13 points.
Brandi Haynes tallied 12 points and
Kendra Evans finished with 10 points. Evans, a junior from Greensboro, Ga., was named tournament most valuable player and junior center
Jasmine Birdsong was named to the all-tournament team. Coach Lonnie Bartley was named Women's Coach of the Tournament.
Miles College was led by Toccara Charles with a game-high 17 points.
As conference champions, the Lady Wildcats earned an automatic bid to the NCAA II South Regional Tournament which will be played next week. The location, brackets and match ups for the regional tournament will be announced on Sunday evening (March 6th).
-Wildcats Athletics-
