CHARLESTON, S.C. – Charleston Southern finished off their out-of-league play on Saturday afternoon inside the Buc Dome with a 69-56 victory over Francis Marion. The win marked the Buccaneers' first-ever over the Patriots with this being the teams' first matchup since 1985.
The two teams battled hard in the first quarter with the Bucs having a narrow 14-13 lead after the opening ten minutes. In the second, the Bucs pieced together two 6-0 scoring runs in the quarter to create some separation that gave them a 32-23 lead heading into the halftime break.
The visiting Patriots got the first bucket of the second half, but Charleston Southern was able to use another 6-0 run to bring their advantage to double digits for the first time in the contest. At the end of the period, the teams went back-and-forth as they scored on five consecutive possessions.
Heading into the fourth, the Buccaneers lead stood at 55-39. Charleston Southern never let the Patriots back within single digits for the remainder of the game and were able to seal the victory at 69-56.
Charleston Southern had four players finish the night scoring in double figures with
Catherine Alben serving as the team's leader with 17.
Madison Adamson,
Maya Robinson and
Keshunti Nichols each collected 10. Nichols finished a perfect 5-5 from the floor over her 17 minutes of action.
Jordan Berry and
Saniya Jones each were able to have solid efforts with them tallying eight apiece. Berry converted on each of her shots from deep as well.
Adamson led the team in rebounds as she pulled down 16 after playing in 37 minutes. Her total for rebounds marks the most by a CSU player this year and the second-most by anyone in the Big South so far. Jones was next on the team with seven and
Shimei Muhammad had six.
On the defensive end, Jones had four rejections with Adamson adding a pair of blocks as well.
Charleston Southern will now look to prepare for their Big South opener on Wednesday. The Bucs open their 16-game conference slate with a road trip to Presbyterian. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. with the game being broadcast live on ESPN+.
