Like Columbus State Athletics on Facebook!
ALBANY, Ga. – The Columbus State University women's basketball team opened its 2018-19 season with a 98-63 victory over Fort Valley State on Friday. The game was played as part of the PBC-SIAC Challenge at Albany State.
Tatiana Wayne led the Lady Cougars with 29 points in just 22 minutes of action. The senior added seven rebounds and seven steals.
LeeAysia Williamson finished with 17 points in her Lady Cougar debut.
Eboni Williams and
Naomi Holloway had 12 and 10 respectively.
"This was a good way to start the season," head coach
Anita Howard said. "We can always find areas that we need to improve, but we were able to get contributions from everybody on the team."
It was Wayne's show early on Friday, as the guard scored Columbus State's first 10 points to give the Lady Cougars a 10-2 lead just 75 seconds into the game. Williams made it a double-digit game at the six-minute mark of the first quarter, but FVSU battled back and cut the lead to 26-19 after one quarter.
Fort Valley State (0-4) scored the opening bucket of the second quarter, but CSU responded with a 19-2 run to open up a 45-23 lead.
Tatum Jarvis had seven points to key the spurt. However, the Wildcats scored the next 14 points and had the margin down to nine at the break.
Columbus State led by just nine three minutes into the third quarter before stretching the lead out for good. Nine unanswered points moved the advantage out to 18 and Williamson buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it 72-52 after three.
The margin never got inside 18 over the final 10 minutes, as the Lady Cougars rolled to their first victory.
CSU was 27-of-67 (40.3 percent) from the field and 6-of-15 from the 3-point line. The Lady Cougars also made 38-of-56 from the free throw line. CSU also won the rebounding battle 63-25.
Columbus State takes on Albany State on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
