Morehouse defeated Tuskegee 66-56 to win the battle of the number one seeds and the 2026 SIAC Championship. The title is Morehouse’s first since 2003, the program’s seventh overall, and the second time they beat Tuskegee to win it.
There are rivalries, and then there is Tuskegee versus Morehouse. The football rivalry is well-documented, but the heat extends to all of the collegiate sports where they meet. Despite the lengthy history, this is only the second time the rivals have met in the title game. Morehouse claimed the 1946 conference championship over Tuskegee, the first conference champion (1934) and 2X winner during the span.
The win also helped break the 6-6 tie for conference titles between the rivals. Morehouse Athletic Director Harold Ellis was a member of two of those championship teams in 1990 and 1991. “This is incredible,” said Ellis. “To win it as a player and an AD (athletic director) is great. We’ve got the best player in America. We’ve got the best president. It’s unreal.”
There were questions about Ellis’ decision to replace fellow alum and former player Doug Whittler after four years at the helm and three consecutive SIAC East Division titles. For all of his success, Whittler fell short of reaching the conference championship game.
Ellis did the unimaginable. He went outside the Maroon Tiger family and hired former Johnson C. Smith player Larry Dixon, a long-time assistant with over two decades of experience at the college level. Dixon led the Tigers to a 22-9 record, 19-5 in the conference.
The questions about the hire grew stronger in the first two months of the season. Morehouse lost seven of its first 12 games, including a 55-67 decision to Tuskegee on the road. They only lost two more games the rest of the way.
“It was a process of growth,” explained Dixon of the turnaround. “Our guys started to buy in. I bought into them. They bought into me. We started growing and growing and growing. We got to know each other. I got to know them. So I think that was the growth and maturity. And our guys never stopped working. And I think the games we lost early helped us down the road.”
Morehouse went on a tear after dropping back-to-back games early in February to LeMoyne-Owen and Lane College. After getting back on track with a 78-74 win over neighboring Clark Atlanta, the Maroon Tigers won seven straight by an average of 12 points.
Morehouse jumped out early, allowing Tuskegee to tie the game only twice (10-10 and 12-12). Once again, the trey-ball from Sincere Moore ignited the M-Tigers. The junior guard from Matoaca HS near Petersburg, VA dropped a pair of threes and forced a turnover that Josiah Lawson turned into a layup and an 8-point lead.
Tuskegee continued to play defense at a frenzied pace, but it didn’t have the same effect on Morehouse as it had on Clark Atlanta the night before. The M-Tigers met the physical play head-on, knocked down shots from outside the paint, and spread the ball around for easy buckets. Four Morehouse players finished in double figures. Josiah Lawson led all scorers with 17 points. The sophomore from nearby (relatively) Tucker got buckets in every kind of way -tough ones in the paint and from the perimeter. He was named tournament MVP for his consistent play.
Tuskegee junior Anthony Wright, one of the trio that chipped in 17 points in the win over CAU, left the game limping with an injury to the knee at the 10:34 mark of the second half. When he returned after nearly 3 minutes, the 13-point deficit had not changed. Kusume Draper, another Tucker HS product, led the Golden Tigers’ scoring effort with 13 points, but it was 7 points shy of his performance in Friday’s semifinal win. Guard RJ Walker was also six points short of his Saturday total.
Wright’s layup near the two-minute mark cut the M-Tigers’ lead to single digits for the first time in the half – 62-53. At that point, the clock was as much of an enemy as Morehouse and the M-Tigers knew it. Moore and Jared White knocked down a pair of free throws each to close out the Golden Tigers and give Morehouse conference title number seven.
Morehouse will play the top seed in the NCAA South Region NOVA Southeastern (27-1). The M-Tigers are one of three HBCU DII teams in the tournament. Fayetteville State (23-6) and Virginia Union (24-5) from the CIAA received invites to the dance as the number 5 and number 7 seeds. The Broncos are the 2026 CIAA conference champions.