SAVANNAH, Ga. — Coming into the quarterfinals of the 2023 TIAA SIAC Women's Basketball Tournament presented by Cricket, Miles had not played a game in 10 days. During the opening quarter against Fort Valley State…it showed. 

But once the West Division No. 2-seed Lady Bears (20-7) shook off some of the rust, East No. 7-seed Fort Valley (8-17) could not muster much offense and Miles cruised to a 57-33 win at Tiger Arena on Thursday. The win gives Miles head coach Pete Asmond 20 wins in his first season as head coach and sets up a semifinal matchup with West  Division No. 4 seed Lane on Friday at 1:30 p.m.

Miles trailed by seven points with 2:28 left in the first quarter before the defense put the clamps on the Lady Wildcats in a major way. The Lady Bears would score 18 consecutive points on a run that went into the second quarter. Eunique McKinney (seven points) started the stretch with a 3-point play and Dereseia Randle (seven points) punctuated the run with a bucket for a 25-14 advantage. In between, FVSU missed 17 straight shots and turned the ball over seven times. By the time Fort Valley got a basket from Torri Myers, Miles had not allowed a shot from the field for almost 12 minutes. 

The basket from Myers also the only made field goal by FVSU in the second quarter, which was answered by a 3-pointer from Iemyiah Harris with seconds left in the second quarter and sent Miles into the locker room with a 28-16 lead. The Lady Bears had scored 15 points off 10 FVSU turnovers in the first half and the defense showed early that it was going to rule the day.

Holding a team to just one basket in a quarter is impressive but for the Lady Bears, it was not their best defensive effort in a quarter in this game. Miles held the Lady Wildcats without a basket during the entire fourth quarter, allowing just three free throws in the final period.FVSU did not make a field goal over he final 10:50 of the contest and made just eight buckets the entire game, shooting 14.5 percent from the field and making just three buckets after the first quarter.

Myers, Diamond Jones and Shekinah Rachel each had six points to lead Fort Valley State. Harris had 16 points, Tederia Ashley had 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Imani Williams added four points, eight rebounds, four assists and six steals for the Lady Bears.