Chris Martin had his second consecutive 30-plus point effort in leading the Clark Atlanta University Panthers to a 79-74 victory over Fort Valley State on the road Saturday.
Martin scored 31 points, 23 of them in a second half to help hold off a game Fort Valley State (1-10, 1-3 SIAC) squad.
Clark Atlanta (5-6, 3-3 SIAC) actually trailed the Wildcats the entire first half. But aside from a couple of early 9-point FVSU leads, the game was close. The Panthers used an 11-4 run in the final four minutes of the first half to go into break down only one, 31-30.
FVSU pushed that lead up to ten points over the first five minutes of the first half as CAU trailed 41-31. Jalen Williams’ free throw with 13:27 tied the game at 45-45. A little over seven minutes later, the game was still tied at 62-62 until Davorian Rudolph gave FVSU the lead at 63-62 with a free throw.
But that turned out to be the final lead for the Wildcats.
Javonte Sterling followed that with a layup and then Martin followed with a 3-pointer that gave CAU a 67-63 lead. Shannon Smith’s layup with 2:01 left gave the Panthers a 76-69 lead that was too much for FVSU to overcome in the end.
Martin, who had 33 points against Spring Hill in the Panthers’ last game, finished with 31 points, seven rebounds and one steal. Martin also hit 13-of-16 free throws and four 3-pointers.
Kye Jeremiah had 14 points and grabbed six rebounds, while Williams had 12 points, seven rebounds, two steals and an assist. Sterling contributed seven points and five rebounds.
Pierre Mitchell led five FVSU players in double figures with 14 points, while Rudolph added 12 points and seven rebounds.
The Panthers are quickly going to be back on the court as they head to Miles (9-3, 4-1 SIAC) on Monday and then LeMoyne-Owen (7-5, 3-4 SIAC) on Wednesday. CAU returns home on Jan. 22 when they host Albany State.
