Men's Basketball News
Men's basketball team wins ninth straight holiday tournament
For the ninth consecutive year, the Centre College men's basketball team won its home holiday tournament, this year rallying in the second half to defeat Berea College 79-71 in overtime in the 2007 Papa John's/Country Hearth Inn Tournament, Saturday, Dec. 29 in Danville, Ky.
The Colonels, which have now won 18 straight games in the tournament, also extended its overall home winning streak to 19 straight games, while improving to 8-1 overall. The last time Centre lost in it's holiday tournament was a 70-50 defeat to Ohio Northern University in the championship game December 30, 1998. The loss drops Berea to 6-8 on the year.
The first half was tight throughout with five ties and eight lead changes. Leading by five points with 5:13 left in the first period, the Mountaineers went on an 8-3 run to close the half and tie the game at 33 at the intermission.
The second half was much like the first as neither team led by more than six points. Trailing 51-45 at the 8:26 mark, Centre slowly fought its way back. Down four with 2:15 left, junior guard Ryan Crowdis (Louisville, Ky.) connected on his fourth three-pointer of the year to close the gap to one point.
After Berea hit a jumper to go up three, senior guard Thomas Britt (Louisville, Ky.) hit a lay up to get within one again. Berea's Cody Hornsby hit one of two free throws to make the score 63-61, but Britt responded making two clutch free throws to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Down by one in overtime, senior guard Matt Nestheide (Edgewood, Ky.) hit a jumper to put Centre in front by one. Crowdis then stole the ball, took it in for a lay up and was fouled. The junior guard hit the free throw and the Colonels went on to finish with an eight-point victory.
Centre finished the game shooting 40.7% (24-59), but made only four of 25 (16.0%) three-point attempts. Berea shot 26-69 (37.7%) from the field, but made 11 of its 25 (44.0%) three-point attempts. The Colonels, however, made 27 free throws to only eight for Berea, while also scoring 27 points off of 18 Mountaineer turnovers to only seven points off 12 Centre turnovers.
Britt led all scorers with 24 points on seven of 10 shooting, including two of three from the three-point line and eight of eight from the charity stripe. The senior guard finished as the tournament MVP after also adding four rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals in coming up only one point short of his career-high of 25 points he set on opening day in 2005.
Nestheide also had another big game, posting 20 points and a career-high 10 rebounds for his first career double-double. He also had five assists and only one turnover in 41 minutes of action in joining Britt on the all-tournament team.
Crowdis and sophomore forward Danny Noll (Ft. Mitchell, Ky.) finished in double figures for Centre as well. Crowdis finished with 11 points, six rebounds, three steals and an assist off the bench, while Noll added 10 points, five rebounds and two steals in the win.
Berea was led by Jordan Samuels and Mikah Turner. Samuels had 17 points and five rebounds, while Turner finished with 16 points and eight rebounds. Hornsby also scored in double figures with 10 points. For their efforts, Samuels and Turner were named to the all-tournament team.
Adrian College earned a 71-65 win over the University of Cincinnati-Clermont in the consolation game played earlier in the day to finish in third place. Ryan Gallus scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the win and was named to the all-tournament team, while Stefan Dunn scored a game-high 20 points to represent the Cougars on the all-tournament team.
Centre will return to action Friday, Jan. 4 to host Oglethorpe University in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contest. The game will be played as part of a men's/women's doubleheader and is set to begin at 8 p.m. in Danville, Ky.
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