No. 1 Chattanooga 73, No. 5 Western Carolina 69
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Top-seeded Chattanooga staved off a furious Western Carolina rally to hold off the fifth-seeded Catamounts, 73-69, in semifinal action of the 2016 Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship presented by General Shale at the U.S. Cellular Center on Sunday evening.
Western Carolina (16-7) clawed back from 13 down in the second half to close the gap to two, 71-69, but Chattanooga (28-5) secured the win from the free-throw line to advance to Monday’s championship tilt.
With the victory, Chattanooga eclipsed its previous school record for wins; the Mocs won 27 games in 1977 and 1982.
Point guard Greg Pryor led a balanced Chattanooga attack with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Chuck Ester added 13 points, while Tre’ McLean and Eric Robertson each chipped in 12. The Catamounts dominated the paint, led by big man Torrion Brummitt’s 23 points. Mike Brown contributed 19 points and Justin Browning notched a double-double with 14 points and 11 boards.
The Mocs connected on 8-of-16 from beyond the arc while limiting Western to just 3-for-17 from downtown.
It was a game of runs from the opening horn, with Chattanooga running out to quick leads to begin each half. The Mocs doubled up Western, 20-10, at the 9:34 mark of the first stanza before the Catamounts caught fire. Behind 13 Brown points, Western outscored UTC 26-13 to take its first lead of the contest, 36-33, just before the break. A Pryor 3-ball slipped through the net as the horn sounded to send the teams to the locker room with the score knotted at 36.
The second half mimicked the first. Chattanooga scored 19 of the first 25 second-half points for a 55-42 advantage with 12:53 to play. Powered by the large sea of purple in the arena, Western Carolina looked to make one final push. Haboubacar Mutombo scooped up a loose-ball offensive rebound and laid it in to cap a 13-4 WCU run that cut the lead to four, 59-55, at 7:24. The Catamounts managed to trim the score to 71-69 with five seconds to go before Robertson locked up the win with two made free throws. Chattanooga hit 15-of-20 from the stripe for the game.
Western Carolina held a 39-27 rebounding advantage and outscored the Mocs 46-28 in the paint. However, they had only nine opportunities from the charity stripe and turned the ball over 20 times.
Chattanooga heads to the SoCon championship game for the 18th time in school history. The Mocs are 10-7 in title games, with their last victory coming in 2009 over College of Charleston. Chattanooga will face the winner of ETSU and Furman.
No. 2 ETSU 84, No. 3 Furman 76
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Ge’Lawn Guyn scored 22 points to lead No. 2 seed ETSU past No. 3 seed Furman in the semifinals of the Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship presented by General Shale at the U.S. Cellular Center on Sunday, 84-76.
The Bucs (23-10) will take on No. 1 seed Chattanooga in Monday’s title tilt, which airs live on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ETSU will be making its first championship game appearance since 2004, when it won its second straight title and sixth overall. The Bucs faced Chattanooga in each of their last four title-game appearances, winning three of those (1992, 2003 and 2004) and losing to the Mocs in 1993.
Furman’s Devin Sibley scored a game-high 29 points in the losing effort, matching the career high he posted at ETSU on Feb. 14, 2015. Teammate Kris Acox had 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for the game’s only double-double.
The Paladins (18-15) used a 9-0 run to pull within six points at 66-60 on a pair of Sibley free throws with just under 5 minutes remaining, but the Bucs’ Desonta Bradford hit a runner in the lane and Peter Jurkin followed with a jumper to push the lead back into double figures and put ETSU back in the driver’s seat.
ETSU pushed its lead back to as many as 13 with 3:20 left on Guyn’s fourth 3-pointer of the night, and the senior added six more points on free throws in the final 71 seconds to ice the game. Furman would close to within seven points in the waning seconds of the contest, but by then, the outcome was decided.
Bradford finished with 15 points off the bench for the Bucs, while Isaac Banks (12) and T.J. Cromer (11) were also in double figures. ETSU held SoCon Player of the Year Stephen Croone of Furman to just nine points on 2-for-10 shooting.
ETSU shot 54.2 percent from the field (26-for-48) and was 24-for-27 from the free-throw line (88.9 percent). The Paladins struggled from long range, going 4-for-20 (20 percent) from beyond the 3-point arc.
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