Brown leads Clark Atlanta to victory

Even though it trailed by four points at halftime and was one half away from yet another year without winning the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship, there was no sense of urgency from the Clark Atlanta men’s basketball team in their semifinal game against Claflin.

Entering the tournament with the best conference record in the regular season has taught Clark Atlanta that things usually work out if it just stays the course.

The Panthers’ patience and poise paid dividends when they rallied in the second half and took advantage of 28 points from junior David Brown in a 70-65 victory against Claflin.

“We had been in that situation all year where we get teams best shot,” said Brown, a 6-foot-4 forward/center who scored 18 points in the second half. “We have a very poised team.”

Clark Atlanta (24-5) plays Tuskegee (19-10) in the men’s championship game at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Clark Atlanta’s last SIAC championship game appearance was in 1999 when it lost to Paine College. Clark Atlanta has not won the title since 1965, when it was Clark College.

Reigning SIAC player of the year Najee Lane, who scored 18 points, spearheaded the Clark Atlanta rally early in the second half. He had a dunk to give the Panthers a 40-39 lead with 13:11 left in the game. He followed that with a 3-pointer, which made the score 43-39 with 12:31 remaining.

Claflin cut the Clark Atlanta lead to 59-57 when Eric Salley made two free throws with 4:28 left in the game. Anthony Pigram made a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 61-60 with 3:39 remaining.

But that was as close as Claflin would get. Clark Atlanta finished the game with a 9-5 run.

“It was perseverance,” Panthers coach Darryl Jacobs said. “We got back in the second half to doing the things we had done all year, which is playing defense, and then the guys settled down and started to dictate things on the court.”

The high-scoring Clark Atlanta offense came into the game having scored more than 70 points eight times this season, but Claflin used a 2-3 zone defense to slow the team down.

Clark Atlanta was 2-0 against Claflin in the regular season, but both victories were decided by a margins of four and three points, respectively.