Claflin sweeps Albany State

ALBANY — Thursday was a frustrating night for the Albany State women’s basketball team as it let a close game slip through its fingers.

Albany State fell to Claflin 60-54, falling to 4-4, 1-2 in the SIAC.

Despite shooting woes, the game was never completely out of reach for ASU. The Golden Rams shot 31.3 percent from the field in the first half and 15.4 percnt from behind the 3-point arc and went into the halftime break trailing 23-18.

ASU’s Ciera Norman shook off the slump in the fourth quarter, knocking down a 3-pointer to make it a 41-40 game in favor of Claflin. The Lady Rams later tied the game up at 44 after a basket by Achanti Layfield with 6:55 left.

From there the Panthers went on a 6-0 run, capped off by Joy Okeke’s basket.

Just as Claflin appeared to be running away with the game, ASU knocked down some important baskets and cut the lead to three on three separate occasions under the two-minute mark.

Albany State was never able to get over the three-point hump. Head coach Robert Skinner said the Rams didn’t execute well down the stretch and struggled to get good shots.

“We didn’t execute properly on offense, and we got ourselves in a rut defensively,” he said. “If we don’t play the way we’re capable of playing every night, then these are some of the results you get.

“We struggled trying to get good shots, and we didn’t get the shots we were accustomed to getting. I was thrilled to get back in the game, but when we could not overcome the lead, I knew we were going to be in trouble down the stretch.”

The Lady Rams were outrebounded 44-41, and Skinner said his team didn’t go a good job of taking advantage of their size inside.

“I didn’t think we did a very good job on the boards at all. We should’ve been more dominate on the boards,” he said. “I thought we were bigger, so we should’ve done a better job of rebounding. We didn’t do a good job of blocking out or protecting the basket defensively.”

He added the Rams, who gave up 24 points in the paint, 30 bench points and 10 second chance points, got caught flat-footed on the defensive end too many times.

“I didn’t think we didn’t we got very good rotations on defense at all,” Skinner said. “We weren’t in position a lot of times when they were driving to the basket, so that kind of hurt us.”

Albany State finished the night shooting 32.8 percent from the field and 28 percent from 3-point range.

Kayla Green was the leading scorer with 13 points followed by Layfield with 12. Elesha Foster was the leading rebounder with 11.

The Rams have a quick turnaround, hosting Benedict at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Men: Claflin 68, Albany State 51

Poor shooting doomed the Rams as they fell to 0-8, 0-3 in the SIAC.

Albany State fell behind 20-8 in the first half but put together a 12-9 run and cut Claflin’s lead to seven. That was as close as ASU came, with the Rams going into the halftime break trailing 37-23 after shooting 27.6 percent from the field and 37.5 from behind the 3-point arc in the first half.

The second half didn’t look much better, as ASU shot 27.3 percent from the field and 20 percent from 3-point range. The lead swelled due in large part to the Rams getting beat on the boards 25-17 and giving up 20 points in the paint in the second half.

Rahdin Hughes and JaDon Davis were the lone double-digit scorers for the Rams. Both finished with 10 points.