Tourney Central 2/28/07
Bullet Points
- Two defending champions were eliminated: Wisconsin-Milwaukee of the Horizon League and Murray State of the OVC.
- Two upsets in the Big South: the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, Liberty and Coastal Carolina, fell at home in the quarterfinals.
- A minor upset in the Ohio Valley quarters, as Samford knocked off Murray in the 4-vs.-5 game.
Brackets
(1) Winthrop 72, (8) Charleston Southern 42 | GameFlo
(5) North Carolina-Asheville 77, (4) Coastal Carolina 64 | GameFlo
(2) High Point 90, (7) Radford 73 | GameFlo
(6) Virginia Military Institute 79, (3) Liberty 78 | GameFlo
Not too surprisingly, Winthrop had its way with Chuck S. in its Big South quarterfinal and sits in position to win out on its home floor. And it's really staggering how often upsets happen in the first round in this conference; in four of the past six seasons, the five has triumphed over the four. Coastal is the most recent victim, as Asheville was able to match the Chanticleers' fits-and-starts offense with solid consistent scoring. And the 6-over-3 is also a tradition here; 'South fans will remember that a Charleston Southern win at Birmingham Southern was the final game of BSC's short but sweet D1 stint last season. It's the sixth straight season a seed No. 6 or lower has advanced to the semis. High-octane freakshow of the year Virginia Military Institute surprised everyone by coming out slow and steady against Liberty, and it won! And not surprisingly, High Point had no problem eliminating Radford, even though newly minted POY AZ Reid was held to 10 points.
(1) Austin Peay 89, (8) Tennessee State 84 | GameFlo
(2) Eastern Kentucky 63, (7) Morehead State 45 | GameFlo
(3) Tennessee Tech 88, (6) Southeast Missouri 60 | GameFlo
(5) Samford 70, (4) Murray State 60 | GameFlo
In the Ohio Valley quarterfinals, No. 1 seed Austin Peay survived an overtime scare from Tennessee State, a team that some had picked to win the conference at the beginning of the season, and if three Tigers and their combined 52 points hadn't fouled out, TSU might have finished the job.. Morehead State, one of the surprise teams in January, is finished with Donnie Tyndall's first season after being beaten badly in a blowout slog at EKU. Samford kept its season alive with 20 points each by Randall Gulina and Jerry Smith.
(5) Youngstown State 82, (8) Detroit 80 | GameFlo
(6) Illinois-Chicago 83, (7) Wisconsin-Milwaukee 77 | GameFlo
(4) Wisconsin-Green Bay 78, (9) Cleveland State 59 | GameFlo
Congrats to YSU, which gets to play on in the Horizon tourney thanks to a huge night by Keston Roberts , who went 12-for-19 to beat Detroit, which featured Brandon Cotton 's nearly identical statline. UWM led for the entire first half, but couldn't hold on to save its season. Cleveland State jumped out to an early lead but couldn't finish the job against Green Bay.
Good Night
Hey now, hey now... don't dream it's over. Tennessee State, Morehead State, Southeast Missouri and Murray State, your seasons are finished now. Coastal Carolina, Radford, Liberty and Charleston Southern, a fond Big South bye-bye. Detroit and Cleveland State of the Horizon League, next year will come soon enough. Tennessee-Martin, Jacksonville State and Eastern Illinois, you aren't part of the OVC tourney since it only took eight of the 11 teams. And Eastern Washington and star Rodney Stuckey, you've just become the first team in Big Sky history to finish with an 8-8 league record and fail to qualify for the six-team tourney. Northern Colorado, you're all done with your first Big Sky season as well... try to catch the deluge in a paper cup.
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