MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Faulkner held off a late Blue Mountain Christian run Friday night for an 82-70 victory in the SSAC Men's Basketball Championship semifinal. The Eagles, who split with the Toppers in the regular season, shot 50 percent from the floor in the rubber match to reserve its date with Loyola in the championship game Saturday night while simultaneously earning the conference's second automatic bid in the NAIA National Tournament.
Faulkner held the lead for all but 2:12 while trailing for only 45 seconds all night. Yet, the Toppers managed to keep within striking distance at almost all times. An
Isaiah Brooks free throw with 14:49 left moved the Eagle lead to 14, its largest point of the night. From there, Blue Mountain put together a 13-5 run to cut it to six points with 9:45 remaining. A Jakobey Hitchens layup with 8:57 on the clock narrowed it to 58-54.
The Eagles then used an 8-2 run to move the lead to 66-56.
Trace Hill converted a layup with 4:03 left for the final Faulkner make from the field. The closing three minutes of play saw the Eagles convert 12 free throws to put the game away. Faulkner connected on 27 of 34 free throw attempts in the game and won the rebounding battle 36-25.
All five starters finished in double figures for the Eagles with
C.J. Hines scoring 21 points to lead the way.
Daniel Garmendia added 16 points, surpassing 1,000 in his collegiate career during the game. Brooks and
Derek Murphy each added 14 points while Hill turned in a double-double at 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The march through the conference tournament has been an exercise in exorcism for the Eagles, who have been tasked along the way with facing the demons of the season's failings.
Scott Sanderson's four-loss squad suffered its first two losses of the season against Blue Mountain and Life. The Eagles dispatched Life in a thriller in the SSAC quarterfinals Thursday night before climbing the mountain against BMCU in Friday's semifinal round. Faulkner's final boss, as it were, is the author of the team's only two unavenged defeats of the current campaign as Loyola took both parts of the regular season series from the Eagles.
Faulkner (26-4), who split the SSAC regular season crown with Loyola, will battle the Wolfpack for outright league supremacy Saturday night at 6:30 p.m.
