Men's Basketball Tournament Schedule, Live Stats Links
Game 8: #3N Samford 76, #2S The Citadel 67
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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ? Led by Bryan Friday’s 22 points and three other Bulldogs who reached double digits, the North Division’s No. 3 seed Samford shocked the South Division’s No. 2 seed The Citadel, 76-67, in the quarterfinals of the 2009 Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship.
Guard Trey Montgomery poured in 20 points, including a 12-for-13 performance from the free throw line, while Josh Davis and Curtis West rounded out the Bulldogs double-figure scorers with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The Citadel’s Cameron Wells led the Bulldogs with 22 points, while dishing out five assists and grabbing five rebounds. Senior Demetrius Nelson scored 15 points, while Zach Urbanus chipped in with 14.
Samford (16-15) advances to face Chattanooga on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET in the second semifinal. The Citadel ends its season with a 20-12 record after finishing 6-24 last season.
Winning by just two at the break, Samford opened the second half on a 17-4 run that put the Bulldogs up 15 with 15:03 left in the game. The Citadel was forced to play from behind and could not get under the 10-point deficit until late in the game due to Samford opening the second half by shooting 15-for-17 from the free throw line. For the game Samford shot 77.4 percent (24-31) from the charity stripe. The Citadel trimmed the lead to seven with 44 seconds remaining in the game, but could get no closer as Samford won by nine.
Samford shot 56.4 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line and outrebounded The Citadel by five, despite coming into the tournament with the worst rebounding margin in the league.
Led by a barrage of 3-pointers in the first half, Samford broke open a close game early by going on a 14-6 run to make it 24-13 with 8:11 left in the half. The Citadel rallied, however, to cut it to 32-30 at the break.
Game 7: #1N Chattanooga 79, #5N Elon 78
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Chattanooga, Tenn. - Kevin Goffney (Ethel, La.) scored 18 points, including the go-ahead free throw with 1:16 remaining, to lead the Chattanooga Mocs to the 79-78 win over Elon in the quarterfinal round of the 2009 Southern Conference Men's Basketball Championship.
The Mocs (16-16) move on to face the winner of The Citadel-Samford game Sunday at 8:30 p.m. Elon ends their season 11-20.
Goffney connected on back-to-back free throws to give the Mocs the lead at 79-78 with 1:16 remaining after the Phoenix fought back from 15 down in the second half. Elon had a chance for the win but a jumper by Devan Carter (Cascade, Va.) bounced off the rim with a second remaining as the Mocs were able to secure the win.
Chattanooga's Stephen McDowell (Indianapolis, Ind.) scored nine of his 17 points in a 27-12 run in the first nine-and-a-half minutes of the second half to pace the Mocs to the 15-point, 67-52 lead. Elon erased that deficit with a 26-10 run of its own to take a one-point lead, 78-77, with 1:57 remaining. The Phoenix run was capped by two three-pointers by Drew Spradlin (Wheelersburg, Ohio) and Long.
Chattanooga built a 10-point, 39-29 lead with 2:50 to go in the first half but Elon used a 10-0 run, capped off by three straight three-pointers, including two from Chris Long, to knot the game at 40 at intermission.
Ola Atoyebi (Chicago, Ill.) led Elon with 20 points and nine rebounds. Long followed with 18 points.
Goffney paced the Mocs with 18 on the night. Nicchaeus Doaks (Trenton, Tenn.) followed with 17 to go along with his team-leading nine rebounds.
Chattanooga shot 52.7 percent from the field for the game, while Elon shot 46.6. The Mocs went 12-of-24 from beyond the three-point arc, while the Phoenix were 13-of-30. Rebounds were even for both teams at 33, with Chattanooga holding the slight turnover edge 11-10.