Basketball Wins Opener of SSAC Tournament

The 8th-seeded Brenau Golden Tigers topped a shorthanded No. 9-seeded Coastal Georgia squad, 65-49, for its first-ever SSAC Women's Basketball Championship win. The Golden Tigers are appearing in their first SSAC Women's Basketball Championship since 2009-10.

Paced by a career-high 20 points from sophomore Autumn Dodson, Brenau never trailed in the contest. The Golden Tigers grew their lead to as many as 24 in the fourth quarter, before closing out a 16-point victory over the Mariners.

Junior Briah Woods added 14 points and seven rebounds, while senior Kalin Williams added 13 points. Junior point guard Dominique Patrick notched seven points five rebounds and four assists.

"This was a very good performance in the opening round of the tournament," said head coach Kris Stewart. "We are really proud of winning the first tournament game in program history and are looking forward to the rest of the tournament."

Brenau won the battle in the paint (38-20) and capitalized on more second-chance opportunities (14-3) than Coastal Georgia.

Playing without substitutes, the Mariners managed to keep themselves within striking distance for much of the way—thanks to 4-of-5 players scoring in double figures. Sophomore Anissa Toumi netted a team-high 15 points for the Mariners in the losing effort.

Brenau will meet top-seeded Bethel (Tenn.) in the SSAC Women's Basketball Championship quarterfinals at 9:00 a.m. Thursday. No. 3-ranked Bethel bested Brenau, 66-54, in the teams' lone regular-season meeting.

The entire SSAC Women's Basketball Championship will be broadcast live via the SSAC's Stretch Internet portal: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ssac/.