Southern States Athletic Conference

CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- The fifth-seeded Shorter Hawks went 10-for-18 from behind the arc to defeat the No. 4-seed Berry Vikings 79-72 on Wednesday night at the Paul Dana Walker Arena in the opening round of the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament.

Tomas Pranciliauskas was 4-for-7 from three-point range and had 26 points to lead the Hawks, which led by as many as 17 points in the second half. Fred Christopher also had 17 points and Kedric Wilson scored 16 for the Hawks.

 

Berry cut the large deficit to a mere three-points at 75-72 behind a 22-point effort from Chris Clark. Berry senior Jess Mullens also finished with 20 points and Daniel Ferguson had 13.

 

The Hawks shot better than 47% from the field and held the Vikings to just over 37% shooting from the floor. Berry also managed just 22-of-31 free throws, while the Hawks hit 7-of-10.

 

Shorter will play the winner of the opening round matchup between No. 1-seed Lee and No. 8-seed Southern Wesleyan in Friday's semifinal game.