COLONIAL ATHLETIC
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 83,
NORTHEASTERN 76 (OT)
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Joe Chealey had 32 points and the College of Charleston rallied from 17 points down in the second half to win the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament championship and earn its first NCAA Tournament berth in 19 years with an 83-76 overtime victory against Northeastern on Tuesday night.
Fans mobbed the floor when things ended, swarming a team that looked cooked about an hour earlier.
After rallying to tie, the Cougars caught fire in overtime. They hit their first four shots, including two three-pointers by freshman Marquise Pointer (Jonesboro) to take a 75-69 lead. Northeastern (23-10) could not come back.
The Cougars (26-7) appeared done early in the second half, trailing 42-25 after Vasa Pusica's three-pointer with 17:27 to go. That's when Charleston ramped up the pressure, forcing 14 turnovers in the second half and tying the game 65-65 on Chealey's layup with 10.1 seconds to go.
Charleston got the ball back with the chance to win in regulation, but Chealey's long three-pointer hit off the front of the rim.
Jerrell Brantley gave the Cougars their first lead of the game, 67-65, in overtime before Pointer's first three-pointer gave Charleston the lead for good. Two minutes later, Pointer did it again as the large, loud crowd at the North Charleston Coliseum roared in delight.
Northeastern's last chance disappeared when Pusica lost the ball out of bounds on a drive with 40 seconds to go. Chealey closed things with four free throws to send Charleston back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since John Kresse led the school to four appearances in six seasons from 1994-99.
Kresse was seen on the arena video boards screaming and leading cheers down the stretch.
Pusica had 30 points to lead the Huskies, who saw their nine-game winning streak ended. Shawn Occeus added 19 points.
Grant Riller scored 20 points for Charleston, 14 of those after halftime. Brantley finished with 18.
WEST COAST CONFERENCE
NO. 6 GONZAGA 74, BRIGHAM YOUNG 54
LAS VEGAS — Killian Tillie scored 22 points and No. 6 Gonzaga raced away to its sixth conference West Coast Conference title with victory over Brigham Young. Gonzaga (30-4) appeared as if it would lock into a defensive battle with BYU (24-10). The Bulldogs turned it into a title-game rout with a halftime-spanning 36-6 run to win their 17th WCC title. Zach Norvell Jr. had 17 points and the Bulldogs held BYU to 35 percent shooting to win their 17th consecutive conference tournament game. Yoeli Childs had 20 points to cap a stellar tournament for BYU. Heading into the tournament, Gonzaga appeared to be on course for another showdown with No. 22 Saint Mary’s in the WCC title game. The Bulldogs, the tournament’s top seed, did their part, beating Loyola Marymount and San Francisco to reach the title game for the 21st season in a row. BYU got in the way of the No. 2-seeded Gaels. The Cougars shot 61 percent and Childs had a career-high 33 points, lifting them to an 85-72 victory and into the title game for the first time since 2015.
NORTHEAST
LIU BROOKLYN 71,
WAGNER 61
NEW YORK -- Joel Hernandez had 32 points and seven rebounds, and LIU Brooklyn shocked New York City rival to win the Northeast Conference Tournament title and earn its first NCAA Tournament bid in five years.
Raiquan Clark had 20 points and eight rebounds for the fourth-seeded Blackbirds (18-16), who handed the top-seeded Seahawks (23-9) their first loss this season on their Staten Island campus.
Romone Saunders had 17 points and Devin Liggeons had 14 points and 11 rebounds for Wagner.
LIU Brooklyn never trailed after Hernandez converted a three-point play with 12:05 left in the first half, and the Blackbirds went on a 15-2 run to take a 34-19 lead into halftime.
Wagner cut the deficit to seven three times in the final six minutes, the last time with 59 seconds left, but the Seahawks didn't score again.
HORIZON LEAGUE
WRIGHT STATE 74,
CLEVELAND STATE 57
DETROIT -- Grant Benzinger had 19 points and nine rebounds to help second-seeded Wright State beat eighth-seeded Cleveland State to win the Horizon League Tournament title and earn an NCAA Tournament bid.
The Raiders (25-9) will play in college basketball's showcase for the third time in school history and the first since 2007.
The Vikings (12-23), led by first-year Coach Dennis Felton, took their last lead with 7:36 left in the first half and seemed to wear down. They were playing their fourth game in five days. Felton, who led Georgia and Western Kentucky to the NCAA Tournament, guided the Vikings to one-point victories over Northern Kentucky and fourth-seeded Oakland to advance to the finals.
Wright State took control late in the first half with a 13-2 run, taking an eight-point lead at halftime. The Raiders outscored Cleveland State 10-2 early in the second half to pull away.
Loudon Love made his first field goal with 14:42 left to put the Raiders up 44-33. The 6-foot-9, 275-pound center finished with nine points and 12 rebounds, setting the school's freshman scoring record and single-season mark for rebounds. Wright State's Cole Gentry and Jaylon Hall scored 11 points apiece.
Kenny Carpenter, playing in his hometown, had 18 points and Tyree Appleby (Jacksonville) scored 15 for the Raiders.
SUMMIT LEAGUE
SOUTH DAKOTA ST. 97, SOUTH DAKOTA 87
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — David Jenkins scored 29 points, Mike Daum had 25 points and 11 rebounds, and South Dakota State beat South Dakota to win the Summit League Tournament championship, clinching the Jackrabbits a third consecutive NCAA Tournament berth. Reed Tellinghuisen added 18 points and 11 rebounds for SDSU (28-6), which has won 11 consecutive. The Jackrabbits shot 48 percent from the field, including 14 for 28 from the three-point line. South Dakota’s leading scorer, Matt Mooney, led the Coyotes with 30 points and seven rebounds.
AMERICAN ATHLETIC WOMEN
NO. 1 CONNECTICUT 70,
NO. 19 S. FLORIDA 54
UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- Gabby Williams scored 19 points to lead No. 1 UConn over 19th-ranked South Florida in the American Athletic Conference championship.
Williams returned to the Huskies' lineup after sitting out the semifinals to rest a hip injury she tweaked Sunday. The senior forward has been dealing with the hip injury all season. She had UConn's first basket after stealing the ball near midcourt. Williams also had 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals before exiting the game for good with just under 6 minutes left. Just before she left, Williams landed hard after scoring a basket.
It was the fourth consecutive year the teams had met for the AAC title. South Florida had lost the first three meetings by an average of 32 points and has never beaten UConn in 26 all-time meetings. Then again, no one has beaten the Huskies in the conference since league play began in 2013. The Huskies are 101-0.
Tournament MVP Azura Stevens added 13 points for the Huskies (32-0).
Kitija Laksa scored 26 points to lead South Florida (26-7).
Automatic qualifiers to the NCAA Tournament
College of Charleston (Colonial)
Gonzaga (West Coast)
Iona (MAAC)
Lipscomb (Atlantic Sun)
LIU Brooklyn (Northeast)
Loyola-Chicago (Missouri Valley)
Michigan (Big Ten)
Murray State (Ohio Valley)
Radford (Big South)
UNC-Greensboro (Southern)
South Dakota State (Summit League)
Wright State (Horizon)
Sports on 03/07/2018