Lady Panthers Fall In SIAC Championship‏ Ruben Perez 03/08/09 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Fort Valley State completed its undefeated run through the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association season with a dominant performance in the league’s women’s championship game Sunday at Fair Park Arena.  Down by two at halftime, the Lady Wildcats used its vaunted full court press to completely rattle Clark Atlanta, running away with a 79-69 win and earning an automatic bid into next week’s NCAA South regional.  Fort Valley State forward Shekiya Tarpkins scored 23 points in earning tournament Most Valuable Player honors. Regular season MVP Shantrell Moss finished with a double-double (27 points, 19 rebounds) but joined the rest of her Lady Panther teammates in a second half meltdown of poor shooting and turnovers.  “We just started making ill-advised passes,” said Moss, whose team committed 16 of its 23 turnovers in the second half. “It’s something we talked about but we just had a mental breakdown.”  Fort Valley (26-4) expected a NCAA tournament bid, win or lose, but winning the championship and completing the perfect conference slate was important.  “We’ve come a long way on this journey,” Tarpkins said. “Not many teams have had an opportunity to do this.”  Clark Atlanta (26-4) feels as if it should get an at-large bid but would have rather had the automatic bid to take the pressure off of waiting for the selection announcement.  “I think that we will get in. We just lost to the second best team in the region. That should count for something,” Clark Atlanta head coach Vanessa Moore said. “This conference doesn’t always get a lot of respect, but if we get in, we’ll represent it well.”  When the second half began, the Lady Panthers felt a solid 20 minutes would lead to a conference title. Unfortunately, the game began to unravel shortly after the second half began.  After exchanging the lead twice, Fort Valley State took the lead for good on a layup by Takesha Riggs (21 points, eight rebounds, six assists) five minutes into the second half. Any chance Clark Atlanta had to stay in the game was ruined by turnovers on six consecutive possessions. By then, the Lady Wildcats had taken a 48-38 lead.  Fort Valley, which usually applies full court press for the duration of its games, was finally able to get it clicking when it mattered most.  “I think they were ready for it in the first half. We were exerting a lot of energy and not getting anything out of it,” said FVSU head coach Ronnie Bartley. “We knew that after we came out from halftime, if you are not a well-conditioned team, it’ll show in the second half.”  Both teams appeared tight at the start, missing their first seven shots combined. Clark Atlanta’s Kharla Westmore broke the stalemate with a bucket more than two minutes into the game, but Fort Valley State needed another minute before it finally broke into the scoring column.  That first basket by Kendra Evans sparked a 16-4 by the Lady Wildcats over the next five minutes that gave them an eight-point advantage – their biggest of the game. Clark Atlanta was getting plenty of shot opportunities but was unable to make them fall, missing on 12-of-15 from the field during the stretch.  It was then that Moss finally started to get going offensively. She scored nine of her 13 first half points – to go along with 10 first half rebounds – over the final nine minutes of the opening half. Her jumper with 57 seconds remaining sent the Lady Panthers into the locker room with a 32-30 advantage.  “I was just trying to feel them out and see how they were playing me. I was trying not to force the issue,” Moss said. “I just relaxed and let the game come to me.”  Jasmine Birdsong scored 10 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for Fort Valley State. Westmore had 10 points and 10 rebounds and Danielle Walker added 12 points for Clark Atlanta.