Panthers Hand Tigers A 65-59 Loss

Orangeburg, SC- The Claflin University Panthers avenged an earlier loss to the Voorhees Tigers on Saturday night with a 65-59 victory. The Panthers feeling the emotion of “Senior Night” played tenaciously throughout the contest. Panther forward Russell “Rusty” Stewart was the only senior on this year's Panther squad. Rusty played a huge role as he motivated the Panthers on the court with two thunderous dunks to get his team and fans fired up.

Ernest Sinkfield spearheaded the Panther attack with 20 points. Phillip Brown contributed 13 points. Jerome Starr and Stewart finished with 12 points. Karl Ray was the man on the boards for Claflin as he pulled down 15 rebounds.

Voorhees was led by Antonio Bolton with a game high 33 points, as no other Tiger scored in double figures.

There were three ties in the game, all in the second half, and seven lead changes. At the break Voorhees held a slim one point lead 25-24.

Voorhees made it seem as though the game might be decided early as the Tigers went on a 15-4 run, to go ahead by 12 points 40-28, at the 16:27 mark in the game. Following a Ron Woodard timeout the Panthers tied the score at 47, with 9:45 left. With the last tie coming with 8:26 left at 47 all. The Panther would go on and out score the Tigers 16-10 the rest of the way for the 65-59 win.