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Men's Basketball News
Men play for the SCAC Tournament crown for the third straight year
After a 70-57 win against Trinity University in the semi-final match-up, Centre College's Men's basketball team advances to the championship game of the league's tournament for the third straight year.
*The following is copied from the Hendrix website*
Centre advances to SCAC title game with 70-57 victory over Trinity CONWAY, Ark. - In a rematch of the 2007 SCAC Tournament Championship game, second-ranked Centre College defeated Trinity University 70-57 in the first of two Saturday semifinal contests at Grove Gymnasium on the campus of Hendrix College.
The victory earned Centre a trip to Sunday's title game - the second-consecutive appearance for Coach Greg Mason's Colonels.
The hard fought first half was a back and forth affair with five lead changes and two ties. Trinity took the early 4-0 lead, holding the Colonels scoreless for the first four minutes of the game. A Jonathan Lewis made free throw with 9:32 left in the half put Trinity ahead by six points at 23-17.
However Centre would take its first lead of the contest (24-23) after a 7-0 run, culminating with a Danny Noll free throw, with 7:50 remaining in the half. Trinity would hold its last lead of the game at 27-26 off a pair of made free throws by Barrett Koch. The Colonels regained the lead by the half, 36-29, spearheaded by a 10-2 run over the final 6:34.
In the second half, Trinity finally snapped an eight plus minute field goal drought that began with 7:33 remaining in the first half and finally ended on a made field goal by Charles Houston with 19:09 left in the game which cut the lead to five at 36-31.
The Tigers pulled to with in three points after a Jonathan Lewis jump shot at the 18:27 mark, but that was as close as Trinity would get.
Centre grabbed its largest lead of the game after an old-fashioned three-point play by Ryan Crowdis with 6:13 remaining which extended the Colonels' lead to fourteen at 60-46.
Trinity had one last run left in them, cutting the lead to eight with 3:10 remaining on a 6-0 run but could never get any closer as the Colonels made a big field goals and hit enough free throws down the stretch. Centre, which entered the game as the second-best free-throw shooting team in the conference at 74.3 percent, managed to make just 19 of 33 (57.6%) on Saturday.
But Centre did hit on 22 of 45 field goal attempts (48.9%), including 54.5% (12-22) in the first 20 minutes while opening up a seven-point halftime lead.
T.C. Thomason put the exclamation point on the Colonels' victory when he stole a Trinity pass in the open court and threw down a thunderous dunk with just 50 seconds remaining.
B. J. Moon led Trinity with 14 points, three assists and two rebounds on the afternoon. Charles Houston also chipped in with 13 points to go along with a game-high nine rebounds. Trinity, which hit on 43.1 percent (25-58) from the field was but 0-for-8 from three-point range, closes out the season with an 18-9 record.
This was the fourth time that Trinity and Centre have met in the SCAC Tournament; the series is now tied at two wins a piece.
With the win Centre continues to add to its league record consecutive-win streak which now stands at 25. The Colonels were led by three players in double figures including T.C. Thomason who finished with 13 points to go along with four steals. Matt Nestheide, SCAC Player of the year just a year ago added nine points to go along with a team-high seven rebounds and five assists.
Centre (25-1) now puts its number two national ranking and 25-game win streak on the line tomorrow in the SCAC Conference Championship against the winner of today's second semifinal match between Millsaps College and Hendrix College.
SCAC Basketball Tournament website |
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