Washington, DC---Charles "CJ" Williams poured in a career-high 37 points and James "JT" Miller added 18, but it was not enough to hold off Savannah State and its three-point shooting barrage as the streaking Tigers (9-12, 6-2 in the MEAC) edged Howard 73-70 in an entertaining Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game at Burr Gymnasium.
The game was a contrast in styles: Howard utilized its size advantage to dominate the paint, holding a whopping 63-39 advantage in rebounding and 36-18 gap in the paint. The Tigers, on the other hand, came into the game as one of the top three-point shooting teams in the country.
The result was eight ties and seven lead changes between the two teams as each tried to impose its will on the other. The Bison had the upper hand early as the duo of Williams and Miller combined for 26 of the team's 35 first half points. Howard led by as much as 11 at one point before the Tigers used the long ball shooting of Dexter McClanahan (15 first half points) to close the gap to 35-32 at intermission.
Howard then threatened to pull away in the first eight minutes of the second half as Williams proved to be virtually unstoppable as he scored 13 of the Bison's 17 points during one stretch that gave his team a 10-point lead.
"We had two 10-point leads in the second half," said Howard head coach Kevin Nickelberry. "They amped their pressure up. We had too many turnovers (29). You probably don't deserve to win when you have that many. And, a lot of them were unforced turnovers. It created easy opportunities for them. They took us out of it. They trapped a little bit more down the stretch. So we couldn't run any offense to get the shots we wanted to get. But again, that's not an excuse. We talked about that, we worked on that for about a week about we what we wanted to do against their press to get the ball to middle of the floor to Williams or to Miller. We didn't get it done down the stretch."
But the pesky Tigers, who have won five in a row, refused to go away and continued to throw up bombs. The Bison aided and abetted Savannah State's cause by committing a season-high 29 turnovers that the Tigers converted into 30 points.
Savannah State finally took the lead for a short time but Howard responded and tied the score twice in the last three minutes. But when it came down to it, it was McClanahan who made the difference. The 6-5 sophomore guard nailed a three pointer and then calmly sank two free throws that decided the game.
The Bison had their chances, but could not come up with the play that they needed.
Williams, whose previous high was 30 versus NC A&T last week, was 15 of 25 from the field and added seven rebounds and two steals in 37 minutes of play. Miller contributed 18 and six rebounds and Marcel Boyd grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.
"I did have career high, but it doesn't feel good at all to lose at home when we supposed to win that game, up by 10 points twice," said Williams who has scored 30 or more points twice in the last three games. "We should've pulled that off. I still believe in my brothers. We all a family in that locker room. I believe we still got the pieces to get it done."
McClanahan led all Tigers scorers with 29, Manassa with 17 and Casey Wells with 10 off the bench.
NEXT UP: Howard will try to get back into the win column when it hosts South Carolina State on Monday at pm. That game will be televised on ESPNU.
