MORROW, Ga. – On a day they moved into a pair of national polls, No. 24 Clayton State (6-1, 0-0 PBC) showed clearly that they belonged there as they crushed Fort Valley State (0-7, 0-1 SIAC) by an 83-51 score in an NCAA Division II women's basketball game on Tuesday, November 29.
 
Junior center Rayven Thomas (North Las Vegas, Nev.) had the best game of her Laker career as she hauled in 17 boards along with 13 points, five steals and three assists in 24 minutes. She was joined by redshirt-senior center Andrea Benford (Madison, Ga.), who collected the second double-double of the night with 10 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks while redshirt-senior guard Tierra Johnson (Edison, N.J.) continued her scoring streak as she dropped 19.
 
Redshirt-senior guard Tweety Hawkins (Madison, Ga.) and junior guard Jimecheia Banks (Phenix, City, Ala.) rounded out the double-digit scorers with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Junior forward Abreyln Rackley (St. Louis, Mo.) added eight points and seven caroms and junior guard Monica Alexander (Richmond, Va.) chipped in with five points and four steals.
 
The Wildcats came out of the gate strong, taking an impressive 11-2 lead over the first 4:09 before Clayton State righted the ship. At that point, the Lakers mounted a monstrous 33-12 run that decimate FVSU's lead and flip the score to 38-25 with 2:43 to play in the half. Fort Valley would finally break that stretch with an 8-4 run to close the half and head to the break with the score at 42-33.
 
In the second half they would have no such burst. Leading 44-36 at the 7:49 mark of the third quarter, the Lakers proceeded to take apart the Wildcats' defense to the tune of a mammoth 39-15 run that left them with an 83-51 lead with 3:07 to play. Eventually the final margin, Clayton State held FVSU scoreless for the final 6:28 of the game to lock down the 32 point victory.
 
Briunca Caldwell led the Wildcats with 13 points, eight rebounds and four steals while Nola Carter had 10 points and four steals. Shekiyah Tarpkins, who entered the game leading FVSU in scoring (19.3), rebounding (6.7), assists (2.0) and steals (3.0) was held to six points and five rebounds while coming away with three assists and three steals.
 
The Lakers continue a three game homestand this weekend with the Heritage Bank Classic from December 2-3. They will open with Chowan at 5:30 p.m. on Friday before closing with Shaw at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. In neutral site action, Armstrong State will face Shaw at 3:30 p.m. on Day 1 before taking on Chowan at 1:30 p.m. the following day.
 
NOTES
Clayton State moved into both the D2SIDA Media Poll and WBCA/USA Today Sports Coaches Poll at No. 24 earlier in the day … they are the only Peach Belt Conference school in either poll, one of two Southeast Region members in the WBCA/USA Today and three in the D2SIDA … with her 19 points, Johnson has now scored a total of 50 in her last two games and has reached double-digits in all seven games.