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NCAA DIV. II ELITE EIGHT RECAPS
FINALS (Men)
WINONA STATE 73, Virginia Union 61
Virginia Union's Panthers fell behind by 18 points
in the first half and a frantic second-half comeback never
got them back even as Winona State stopped their bid to
repeat as NCAA Div. II champions in the national title
game Saturday in Springfield, Massachusetts. VUU (30-4),
who made up nine-point second-half deficits in
winning quarterfinal and semifinal games, cut WSU's early
35-17 lead down to nine, 38-29 at the half. After the break,
the Panthers went to a pressing defense to get the lead down
to six three times and got as close as five, at 54-49 with 8:32
left. The Warriors, however, beat back every comeback
attempt including going on a 10-2 run to go up 64-51 with
4:45 remaining. VUU made one final run at the Warriors,
climbing to within 66-59 with 2:11 to go before WSU closed
the game on a 7-2 run. Brad Byerson led the Panthers with
22 points and 14 rebounds but he was the only Panther to
reach double figures. VUU shot a woeful 9% (1 of 11) from
three-point range and just 40% (23 of 58) from the floor. The
loss was VUU head coach Dave Robbins' first in four trips to
the championship game. WSU canned 10 of 25 3-pointers
and had four players reach double figures.
SEMIFINALS (Men)
VIRGINIA UNION 68, Seattle Pacific 63
Virginia Union made up a nine-point second half
deficit for the second night in a row and outscored Seatle-Pacific
17-5 over the final nine-and-a-half minutes of Thursday's
semifinal game at the MassMutual Center to earn a shot at a
repeat national championship on Saturday. The Panthers (30-3)
led 33-30 at the half but were outscored 23-11 over the
first seven-and-a-half minutes of the second half to trail
53-44 with 12:40 left. They pulled within two, at 53-51 before
the Falcons scored five straight points to lead 58-51 with 9:38
to play. VUU, who hit 62.5 percent (15 of 24) of its
second-half shots, then began its final run on a
Chris Greene bucket and back-to-back baskets by
Darius Hargrove. But VUU still needed heroics from point guard
Buster Perkins, whose putback provided the two-point margin of victory in
the quarterfinal game. SPU all-American guard Tony
Binetti canned a three-pointer for the last of his 17 points with
2:10 left to pull the Falcons even at 63. A free throw by
center Brad Byerson game VUU a 64-63 lead before Perkins
came through tipping home a Crockett miss to put VUU up
66-63 with :45 seconds left. Just as in Wednesday's game,
the bucket by Perkins was his only tally of the evening.
SPU would not connect again. Hargrove (22 points) and
Byerson converted free throws to close out the scoring. Byerson
had 14 points and a game-high 16 rebounds for the Panthers
while Greene also had 14 points.
QUARTERFINALS (Men)
VIRGINIA UNION 60, SIU-Edwardsville 58
Point guard Buster Perkins rebounded a
Darius Hargrove layup miss and swished an eight-footer
with 7.6 seconds left to provide the winning margin for the
Panthers (29-3) in an Elite Eight quarterfinal game Wednesday
in Springfield, Mass. Perkins got his only basket of the
game after SIU-E tied the game with :42 seconds left on
Mike Hardiek's two free throws. The Panthers trailed 33-32
at the half in a game that had 15 lead changes and were down
52-43 with 8:25 left until a 10-0 run put them up 53-52 at
the 4:09 mark. Brad Byerson's jumper put the Panthers
up 58-56 with 1:03 left. Byerson was the high man for the
Panthers with 16 points and 10 rebounds. VUU's
dynamic trio of Darius Hargrove (3 of 11),
Duan Crockett (2 of 13) and Chris Greene
(2 of 10) shot a combined 7 for 34. Crockett was 9 of 10
from the line to finish with 14 points.
QUARTERFINALS (Women)
St. Cloud State 78, SHAW 71
CIAA and South Atlantic Region champion
Shaw (29-5) battled gamely but could not get past the
national quarterfinals for the second year in a row as they fell to
St. Cloud State (29-4) in the opening game of the NCAA Div.
II Elite Eight at the Summit Arena in Hot Springs,
Arkansas Wednesday. The Lady Bears came out in a full-court
press and led 13-7 early before SCSU rallied to lead by nine
with just over four minutes left in the first half. Shaw closed
the half on a 10-4 run capped by Leslee Anderson's
3-pointer just before the buzzer and trailed 34-31 at the break.
They went down by ten early in the second half, cut that lead to
two and then saw SCSU go up by nine, 55-46 with 8:48
remaining. Shaw got no closer than five points the rest of the
way. They stayed within striking distance however with
their biggest deficit being 70-58 with 3:18 to play. Anderson
led the Lady Bears with 19 points while Nastassia
Boucicault added 17.
© 2006 Azeez Communications, Inc.
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