Cox nets career-high 27 points in Central State win

TT senior women’s team basketball player Chervelle Cox recorded a career-high 27-point haul, guiding Central State University (CSU) to an 86-79 overtime victory against Clark Atlanta University (CAU), on Tuesday.

The power forward also ended with 17 rebounds and two blocks in a stand-out performance, shifting her averages to 10.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 1.3 blocks in 26 minutes per match.

In a rematch of last year’s Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) championship, Cox started with a burst of six quick points as Central State took an early 10-0 lead.

CAU trailed by as many as 16 points in the second period, before storming back into the match with an unanswered ten-point run of their own.

However, CSU, the defending champions, held a 37-31 lead at half-time.

Cox, in her final year at CSU, scored her team’s first two baskets in the third quarter, while Clark Atlanta countered to reduce the deficit closer to three points.

The TT star player scored again to take CSU up by five points but disappointingly picked up her fourth foul in the third period with almost three minutes to play.

With their top scorer forced to sit out, CSU’s lead dwindled to just two points, with the score 51-49 at the end of the third period.

In the final six minutes of play, the intensity between the two teams heightened as they recorded a total of ten 10 lead changes.

A missed free-throw by CSU guard, Takyra Gilbert with 0.6 seconds to go forced the game into overtime.

CSU left it late but went on another big run, outscoring CAU 10-2, to make it look easy in the end.