It was a capacity crowd on hand in the Smith Hammond Middleton Memorial Center to witness the revival of The Garden City Basketball Classic.
The first half was a low scoring contest as SC State held a six point halftime lead 28-22. Both teams showed that they preferred defense to win this game.
The statistics bore out how close this game was, as SC State shot 33% (9-27)from the field, 28% (2-7)from the behind the arc, and 72% (8-11) from the free throw line. SC State committed 11 turnovers. Claflin shot better shooting 38% (8-21) from the field, 33% (3-9) from the three point area, but just 43% (3-7) from the free throw line. And Claflin, also committed 15 tunovers. Khalif Toombs led SC State in scoring at the break with nine points. Terrence Bowman led Claflin with six points.
The second half began as a see-saw battle with SC State (1-0) maintaining a three point advantage. Until Claflin (0-1) tied the score on a three point basket by
Edward Green. From that point until the 15:37 mark SC State ran off 10 unanswered points to make the score 44-34 SC State.
The lead ballooned to 13 points 47-34 with 10:44 left, before Claflin got back to back baskets to cut the Bulldogs lead down to eight points 47-39 at the 9:24 mark.
The lead would remain eight until the 6:40 mark when the Bulldogs regained their double-digit lead 55-45. SC State used their ball control offense inside of five minutes to run time off the clock and only looked for easy layups or fouls.
Claflin would have to foul in order to get possessions to try to make a late run. But Bulldogs executed down the stretch to preserve to win the The Garden City Basketball Classic, by a 70-53 score.
SC State was led by Garden City Basketball Classic MVP Toombs, with a game high 17 points, followed by Shaquil Barber's 15 points, and Aaron Martin with 11 points.
Alonzo Gailiard led the Panthers in the scoring column with 13 points, while Terrence Bowman chipped in 11 points.
The Panthers will be back in action on Saturday, November 11, 2011 in a Homecoming match-up with SIAC rival Paine College at 3:00pm.
