No. 1 Davidson 65, No. 4 Appalachian State 62
Box Score
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Davidson came back
from a 13-point second half deficit to claim a 65-62 semifinal win over
Appalachian State Sunday evening in ExploreAsheville.com Arena at U.S. Cellular
Center in the 93rd Southern Conference Championship. The top-seeded Wildcats
look to defend their 2012 SoCon Championship with a record of 25-7, while fourth-seeded
Appalachian State ends its season at 15-16.
Jake
Cohen and De’Mon Brooks combined for 33 points with 17 and 16, respectively.
Chris Czerapowicz added 10 points and a team-high six rebounds. Nathan Healy
led the Mountaineers with 14 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Jay Canty
and Mike Neal had 13 apiece, with Canty tying Healy with a game-high seven
boards.
Appalachian
State got off to fast starts in both halves. It led by as many as 11, 20-9, in
the opening 20 on Healy’s jumper at 9:48. Despite the hot start, the Wildcats
clawed back to within two at the break, 28-26, on Czerapowicz’s basket at 2:22.
It
was more of the same in the second frame. The Mountaineers went on a 13-0 run
to take their largest lead of 13, 41-28, on a Canty layup with 15:03 to play.
Like in the first half, Davidson worked its way back into it.
Tyler
Kalinoski capped a 13-2 spurt by the Wildcats on a 3-pointer with 11:19 to go,
cutting the margin to two, 43-41. Four straight from Canty made it a six-point
game again, but a three-point play from Brooks followed by another Kalinoski
trey knotted the score at 47 with 8:49 remaining.
Brooks’
slam at 6:52 put the South Division champs ahead, 49-47, for the first time
since leading 3-0 to open the contest. The two squads traded baskets until
back-to-back 3-pointers from J.P. Kuhlman and Kalinoski put the Wildcats ahead
by six, 57-51, with 4:32 left.
Appalachian
State was not done. It scored on three straight possessions to tie it again,
57-57, on another Canty layup at 2:36. Brooks put Davidson up for good 18
seconds later with a layup of his own, but the game was not without its drama.
Cohen
put his squad up six, 65-59, with two free throws with 25 seconds to play. Tab
Hamilton hit a 3 from in front of the Appalachian State bench to close to
within three. But with 14 seconds left, the Mountaineers had to foul. Their only
choice was Nik Cochran, the nation’s leading free throw shooter at 95.5 percent,
but Cochran missed the front end of the one-and-one.
The
Mountaineers called timeout with 4.7 ticks remaining. Healy got the ball up top
and his deep 3-pointer over Brooks just missed its mark, allowing the Wildcats
to escape with the win.
Despite
the nip-and-tuck nature of the contest, there were just six ties and two lead
changes. Both team shot the ball well, with the Mountaineers making 50 percent
of their attempts (24-for-48) compared to 49 percent for Davidson (25-for-51).
The difference came from beyond the arc, where the Wildcats hit eight of 19 (42.1%),
while Appalachian State made just three of 13 (23.1%).
Davidson
now awaits the victor of No. 2 Elon against No. 3 College of Charleston for Monday’s
championship game in ExploreAsheville.com Arena inside the U.S. Cellular
Center. The Wildcats are 11-7 all-time in SoCon Championship title games, including
a 6-2 mark under current head coach Bob McKillop.
The
two teams will vie for the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. The
7 p.m. tip airs on ESPN2.
No. 3 College of Charleston 68, No. 2 Elon 60
Box Score
Postgame Quotes
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Junior Willis Hall scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to propel the third-seeded College of Charleston men’s basketball team to a 68-60 win over the second-seeded Elon Phoenix (21-11) and into the championship game of the 2013 Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship at the U.S. Cellular Center. The Cougars (24-9) meet top-seeded Davidson in the title tilt Monday evening at 7 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN2.
Andrew Lawrence led the Cougars in scoring with 19 points. Elon’s Lucas Troutman led all scorers with 23 points, while Josh Bonney came off the bench to chip in 15 points in 15 minutes played.
The Cougars came out of the gate strong in both halves, a Lawrence 3-pointer starting an 8-2 burst in the final period to give CofC a 33-21 lead. Elon continued to feed Troutman to generate offense, whittling the lead to five, 36-31, on Troutman’s slam at 14:52.
Charleston held the Phoenix without a field goal for nearly three minutes in pushing the lead to 12 at 44-32 on a 3-pointer from Anthony Thomas. In what would become the game’s theme, Elon battled back but just could not get over the hump.
Bonney made it a two-point game, 46-44, with 7:09 to go. After a Bonney miss to tie the game, Hall went on his own personal run. He scored seven straight to give his Cougars breathing room as the game entered the final five minutes.
Elon cut the lead to four on four occasions, but CofC was stoic at the free throw line. It made all eight of its free throw attempts in the final minute, the last six coming from Lawrence’s hand for the eight-point win.
The Cougars shot 82.3 percent from the free throw line for the contest, going 19-for-23. They also managed to shoot 45.7 percent from the field, including 41.2 percent from 3-point range.
The Phoenix struggled shooting the basketball. It shot 39.6 percent from the field, 27.3 percent from beyond the arc and an uncharacteristic 62.5 percent (15-for-24) from the charity stripe.
College of Charleston got off to a quick start, nailing three straight from long range en route to an 11-0 lead before the first media timeout. Following a Phoenix timeout, a Troutman dunk finally put Elon on the board at 15:06.
The Cougars capitalized on a poor shooting performance by the Phoenix – a Elon shot 29.6 percent in the opening 20 minutes – and took advantage of its size under the basket. CofC pushed its lead to 23-10 after back-to-back buckets from Hall and several makes from the free-throw line.
A few Troutman buckets and a triple from Bonney trimmed the Cougars’ lead to 23-19 with 44 seconds on the clock. With the seconds ticking down in the half, Lawrence dumped in a final basket to send CofC to the locker room with a six-point edge.