Clark Atlanta University men’s basketball team is officially the 2024 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) champions. The Panthers clinched the title after defeating Miles College 65-55 on last Sunday at Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia.
The Panthers, who went into the tournament as the team to beat, also walked away with the top honors of SIAC Coach of the Year for head coach Alfred Jordan; the SIAC Player of the Year for Chris Martin, a graduate student from Charlotte, North Carolina; the tournament MVP, Shermani Fuller, a sophomore from the Bronx, New York, who led all scorers with a game-high 20 points in his first season with the Panthers and Kharye Cayne, a Junior from Raleigh, North Carolina was named SIAC Defensive Player of the Year for over 100 blocks during the season and ranking #2 in the country in blocked shots.
With the win, the Panthers (25-5, 16-5 SIAC) secures its first SIAC Championship since 2017 (and the sixth one in program history) and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II South Region Tournament. They will face Florida Southern (21-9) on Saturday, March 16, at noon in the Rick Case Arena on the campus of Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“This is a full circle moment that I’ve dreamt about since I was a player,” said Coach Alfred Jordan, a 2009 graduate of the university. “As a former basketball player and alumnus of CAU, I am ecstatic to serve as the head coach and to win the SIAC Men’s Basketball Championship. “I am super proud of these young men! They trained hard on the court and put their all into being a successful basketball team. They banded together like brothers on the court. They studied film, worked together on classwork, and even found time to give back to the community.”
Clark Atlanta’s Athletic Director, Jerel Drew said, “I want to congratulate Coach Jordan, his staff, and our amazing team for this tremendous accomplishment. This victory signifies the leadership of our program under Coach Jordan’s help and the championship spirit and character of our scholar athletes. We are excited to be the 2023-24
SIAC Champions and are looking forward to the NCAA regional championships.”
The university is planning a celebration of the championship win to be held soon, more details are forthcoming.
About Clark Atlanta University
Clark Atlanta University was formed with the consolidation of Atlanta University and Clark College, both of which hold unique places in the annals of African American history. Atlanta University, established in 1865 by the American Missionary Association, was the nation’s first institution to award graduate degrees to African Americans. Clark College, established four years later in 1869, was the nation’s first four-year liberal arts college to serve a primarily African American student population. Today, with nearly 4,000 students, CAU is the largest of the four institutions (CAU, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Morehouse School of Medicine) that comprise the Atlanta University Center Consortium. It is also the largest of the 37-member UNCF institutions. Notable alumni include: James Weldon Johnson, American civil rights activist, poet, and songwriter (Lift Every Voice and Sing – “The Black National Anthem”; Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., American civil rights activist; Congressman Hank Johnson, Georgia District 4; Kenya Barris, American award-winning television and movie producer; Kenny Leon, Tony Award-winning Broadway Director; Jacque Reid, Emmy Award-winning Television Personality and Journalist; Brandon Thompson, Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion for NASCAR; Valeisha Butterfield Jones, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the Recording Academy. To learn more about Clark Atlanta University, visit www.cau.edu.
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