Box Score ATLANTA, Ga. -- The Benedict College Tigers advanced to the SIAC men's basketball tournament championship game for the second year in a row with a 68-55 victory over Paine College on Friday night at Morehouse College's Forbes Arena.
Rickie Jackson had 16 points to lead the Tigers, while
Marcus Goode had 15 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocked shots.
Xavier Collier also added 15 points.
After a hard-fought and tight first half, Benedict took a 28-27 lead into the locker room. Whatever adjustments coach
Fred Watson made at halftime worked, as the Tigers outscored Paine 40-28 in the second half, and held the Lions to 29 percent shooting in the second half.
Jackson helped ignite a pair of key second-half runs for the Tigers. Paine's Sean Morgan put the Lions ahead 29-28 with a layup to open the second half. Then Jackson hit his first of four second-half 3-pointers. The Lions tied the game at 31 on another layup by Morgan, then the Tigers scored nine straight points, including another 3-pointer by Jackson, to take a 40-31 lead with 15:57 on the clock.
The Lions closed the lead to 48-43 on a layup by Morgan with 9:02 remaining, but then the Tigers went on a 14-0 run, which included another 3-pointer by Jackson. Collier wrapped up the run with a fast-break layup to give the Tigers a 62-43 lead with 3:33 left to play. The Tigers then held on the rest of the way to punch their ticket for a return trip to the conference championship game.
Benedict, 22-6, is the defending SIAC Tournament champion. Benedict and Morehouse split their two regular-season meetings this year. Morehouse, 21-7, advanced to the championship with a 63-58 victory over Tuskegee in the other men's semifinal on Friday.
Paine ended its season at 14-15. The Lions got 12 points each from Jerel Stephenson and Kedric Taylor. Morgan chipped in with 10 points.
Paine shot 33 percent for the game, and missed all nine 3-point attempts. Benedict shot 45.8 percent for the game, including 52.6 percent in the second half. The Tigers also had a 42-32 rebounding advantage.
