JACKSON, Miss. - The Centre College Colonels, the East's top seed, edged the second seeded DePauw University Tigers 60-56 to lay claim to the program's third Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship in the last four years. Box Score | Post-Game Interviews
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The win earned Centre the SCAC's automatic bid into the NCAA
Division III Tournament. Head coach Greg Mason and his Colonels
earned the school's fourth consecutive NCAA bid and 13th overall.
Centre improved to 18-8 whil DePauw dropped to 20-8 with the loss.
Colonel sophomore guard Jeff Mullaney paced the Centre attack as he scored a game-high 19 points on 9-for-18 shooting. He was one of four Colonels who scored in double-figures. Teammates Danny Noll (13), Bryon Ellis (10) and Josh Crawford (10) rounded out the quartet.
DePauw held a one-point lead, 32-31 at the half thanks in large
part to its shooting. The Tigers shot 44.4 percent (12-for-27)
overall and conncecte
d on 6-of-10 shots from 3-point range. The first half saw four
lead change and two ties. The largest lead, for either team, was
five points.
DePauw was not quite able to keep up the accurate shooting in the second half. The Tigers shot 26.7 percent (8-for-30) while Centre was able to shoot just over 46 percent to earn the win. The Colonels also used a strong performance from the post, as they held a 20-8 scoring advantage inside the paint. DePauw did hold a 13-0 margin in points off the bench.
The Tigers were led by Drew Willis' 12 points and Sean Haseley's 11 points. Willis also chipped in with five rebounds.
The second half saw nine lead changes and four ties. With the score tied at 46-46 with 7:16 remaining in the game, the teams swapped baskets over a two minute stretch before the Colonels established a five point lead (56-51) with 2:20 left.
Trailing by four with 30 seconds left, DePauw missed two
three-pointers and Centre hung on for the win. The Colonels earned
their third win over DePauw. Centre won both regular season
contests as the teams both finished 11-5 in SCAC play. The teams
were evenly matched as each regular season matchup was decided by
seven points or less. DePauw did hold a slight edge on the glass,
32-29.
All-Tournament team honros went to Centre's Mullaney (MVP), Noll, Alex Lloyd, DePauw's Willis and Trinity University's Luke Caldarera.
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