S.C. State head coach Tim Carter pulled up a chair and took a seat after Thursday night’s game at Smith-Hammond-Middleton Center.

“Man, I’m glad that’s over,” he said as he wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. Carter could only watch and set up plays from the sidelines as Allen University found ways to put pressure on the Bulldogs on both sides of the ball for 40 minutes. Fortunately for the Bulldogs, their resiliency and proved to be just enough to take an 88-81 win over the Yellow Jackets.

S.C. State (2-0) opened the game with a 6-0 run before Anthony Gordon posted the first points of the night for Allen. As the Yellow Jackets continued to battle for their first lead of the night, the Bulldogs struggled to find a way to gain separation from the scrappy team out of Columbia.

“Allen kept themselves in the game,” Carter said. “I thought they did a great job of changing defenses, not letting us run our offense, trapping first passes. I give them a lot of credit.”

Even though the Bulldogs shot just under 52 percent from the field against Allen, they had trouble guarding the Yellow Jackets (3-2) as they attacked the basket. Their inability to do so only allowed SCSU to take a 39-38 lead into the half.

S.C. State started the second half with a 9-2 run giving themselves a 48-40 lead, their largest lead of the night. However, Allen’s 3-point shooting kept the game close as the Bulldogs. Still, that didn’t stop Darnell Porter early on in the half. The junior guard scored 15 of his 22 points after halftime.

“I just felt like the team needed to get some baskets,” Porter said. “We had a hard time scoring the basketball and defending. Allen did a great job of really playing us hard, taking us out of our offense and knocking down jump shots. I had a couple of opportunities and I just tried to take them so we could get this win.”

Although Porter did give the team some assistance, he had to play somewhat conservatively with four fouls giving the Yellow Jackets a chance to get back into the game.

Allen senior guard Byron Littlejohn took advantage of the cushion that the S.C. State defense provided and knocked down three consecutive threes to make it a 65-63 in favor of Allen with 7:10 to go.

“We had a hard time guarding his penetration,” Carter said. “If you left him open, he was nailing threes. He was a player. He was a gamer. He had a tremendous night. We knew coming into the game that he could really score the basketball.”

With time winding down, the Bulldogs needed someone to step up and make plays. That’s when guard Tyvon Williams came into the picture.

“We stopped trying to run our secondary and we told Tyvon to go out and make plays,” Carter said. “It was real simple. We told Tyvon to go make plays, break them down and use his speed and quickness. If there was a game ball, I’d give it to Tyvon.”

The guard out of New York scored 12 of his 16 by penetrating the Yellow Jacket defense and attacking the basket to help his team regain the lead.

But the Yellow Jackets refused to go quietly. With 2:41 left to play, a basket by Corey Williams cut the Bulldog lead to 80-79. Unfortunately for Allen, a 3-pointer with 2:10 to go by Khalif Toombs along with four free throws in the final minute would give S.C. State just enough separation to walk away with the victory.

Although they picked up the win, Carter knows that there are still a few details that have to be tweaked heading into Monday’s home game against Southern Wesleyan if the Bulldogs hope to continue their early success.

“We have to find a better way to defend the ball,” he said, “and really, we’ve got to change some of the things we do offensively to maybe fit Tyvon a little more. We may even have to go smaller even on the perimeter and maybe start Tyvon and Khalif.”

T&D Sports Writer Emery Glover can be reached by e-mail at eglover@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5532. Check out his blog, Cover 2, at www.thetandd.com.

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