Mecca Frost helps Albany State women beat Tuskegee

ALBANY — With the SIAC Tournament taking place next week, Albany State women’s head coach Robert Skinner hopes his team has peaked at the right time.

In their final game of the regular season, they hosted and defeated Tuskegee 78-55 to extend their win streak to 10 straight games and gained confidence and momentum heading into the tournament.

The Lady Rams were led by Mecca Frost who put an exclamation point on her collegiate career, finishing the night with a triple-double. She totaled 12 points to go with 11 rebounds and 11 assists. Keidra Green finished with 13 points as did SIAC All-Tournament forward Artisha Holston, who also had 19 rebounds.

Albany State built a commanding 32-12 lead in the first half and never looked back. Defensively, they collected 17 steals and held the Tigerettes to just 31.7 percent shooting. Skinner said his team has made tremendous strides defensively since the beginning of the season.

“We’ve put together a defensive philosophy that we pretty much just stuck with and gone with the remainder of the season,” he said. “And it’s been really good to us. The crowd support tonight, the student body, the community came out and supported us and glad to see that and it really motivated us to play even harder than what we’ve been playing.”

Their 16-9 overall record and 15-3 SIAC record have earned them the number two seed in the tournament. Skinner said while it’s not as great a finish as last season, he’s still hopeful they’ll come out on top.

“You always want to go in as the number one seed, but we can’t be disappointed by going in as the number two seed,” he said. “We went in number one last year and lost the tournament. So this year, let’s hope and pray we can go in number two and win the tournament.”

With the defense on one accord, Skinner feels they’re prepared to try and make a deeper run in the tournament this year.

“I think we’re probably equally as ready as we were last year,” he said. “Last year we were very confident. We had inside and outside game, we had perimeter shooters and we were probably in the middle with the defense. I think this year’s team is a little bit more equipped defensively, and I think with a little encouragement and a lot of hard work between now and next Thursday, we’ll see what we’re made of.”

They’ll face the winner of the Clark vs. Stillman game which is scheduled for Tuesday night in Birmingham, Ala.