JACKSON, Miss. - The Eastern Division's top two seeds, No. 1 Centre College and No. DePauw University, will meet for the second year in a row in the the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship game and the league's automatic bid to the 2011 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship. Official Site | SCAC Blogspot
DePauw earned its second consecutive SCAC tournament championship game appearance with a 58-56 win over Trinity University in the first semifinal of the night. Centre earned it's sixth consecutive SCAC tournament championship appearance with a 70-57 win over Oglethorpe University in the final semifinal of the night.
Semifinal One Recap
DePauw University avenged its regular season loss to Trinity University as the Indiana Tigers (19-8, 12-4 SCAC) advanced to their second consecutive SCAC championship with a 58-56 win over the Texas Tigers in the first semifinal of the 2011 SCAC Men's Basketball tournament. Box Score | Post-Game Interviews
DePauw jumped out to a 33-24 halftime lead thanks to 50 percent shooting in the first half. The Indiana Tigers shot 13-of-26 while holding Trinity to 37 percent shooting in the first half (10-of-27).
Trinity scored 36 of their 56 points from three starters as Ryan Beall paced the group with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Beall was 5-of-9 from the floor. Freshman Robert Kitzinger scored 12 points while senior forward Luke Caldarera scored 10 points and added five rebounds.
In the second half DePauw cooled off as Trinity limited the Indiana Tigers to 9-of-23 shooting (39.1 percent). Trinity shot better as they connected on 14-of-29 from the floor in the second stanza (48.3 percent). Trinity tied the game with less than 30 seconds remaining on the heels of 13 offensive rebounds during the game.
Trailing 58-56 with 30 seconds left in the game, Trinity had a chance to tie or win the game on their final possession. However, Trinity's Caldarera was not able to get the tying basket as time expired.
With the win DePauw advances to its third all-time appearance in the SCAC championship game and second straight trip. DePauw won the 2006 SCAC championship before falling to Centre in last year's final, 60-56. DePauw will play the winner of the Centre vs. Oglethorpe semifinal on Sunday, February 27 at 2:30 p.m. CT at Millsaps College.
Semifinal Two Recap
Centre College, the East's No. 1 seed, advanced to its sixth consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship game with a 70-57 semifinal win over division rival and No. 3 East seed Oglethorpe University. Box Score | Post-Game Interviews
Sophomore guard Bryon Ellis led Centre (20-5, 13-3 SCAC) as he scored a game-high 28 points on 9-of-11 shooting, including an SCAC tournament record eight 3-point field goals. Ellis was 8-of-10 from beyond the arc. He matched former Centre standouts Matt Nestheide (Feb. 25, 2007) and Kris Bentley (March 1, 2009) as the only three to make at least eight shots from 3-point range in SCAC tournament history (since 2003).
Oglethorpe raced out to a 36-34 halftime lead on the strenght of shooting nearly 56 percent (15-of-27) in the first half. The Stormy Petrels (15-12, 10-6 SCAC) could not keep up their hot shooting as the Colonels limited Oglethorpe to 28 percent shooting (7-of-25) in the second half. Centre came into the SCAC tournament as the nation's second leading scoring defense, giving up an average of just 55.3 points per game.
Centre's Greg Ross, a night after scoring an SCAC tournament single-game record 38 points, added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Colonels. Heading into the championship game, Ross is averaging 24 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
Oglethorpe was led by senior guard Joe Kennedy's 18 poins, four rebounds and one steal. He shot 7-of-18 from the floor. Also chipping in for the Stormy Petrels were classmates Alex Richey (15 points) and Todd Ward (11 points).
The turning point of the game came on an Ellis three-pointer which gave Centre a 60-50 lead with 6:28 left in the game. From there, the Colonels were able to extend the lead to 68-54 with just over one minute remaining before earning the win.
Centre advances to the SCAC championship game for the sixth consecutive year and will look for its fourth SCAC championship in the last five years. The Colonels square off against yet another division rival in DePauw. These same two teams played for the conference championship a year ago with Centre prevailing 60-56. This will mark the third time that Centre and DePauw meet with an SCAC championship on the line. DePauw won the 2006 championship with a 64-61 win over Centre.
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