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57h Annual CIAA Men’s Basketball Tournament
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Broncos Survive Tiger Attack – Advance to Quarterfinals
RALEIGH, NC – Fayetteville State University had never defeated St. Paul’s College in the first-round of the CIAA Tournament, until today.
Bryan Chapman and Joe Edwards led the Broncos with 11 points each as they escaped with a 50-45 win against St. Paul’s College in the CIAA Tournament at the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena.
“We played excellent defense,” said FSU coach Mike Bernard. “Any time you hold a team under 50 points you’re playing excellent defense. We did not have a very good offensive game, but when you play good defense you can always win a ballgame.”
The Broncos (18-7) opened up their biggest lead of the game after a Gerald Johnson put-back jam pushed the score to 23-13 with 5:53 remaining in the first half. Darrell Johnson’s two-handed slam at the end of the half gave FSU a 30-20 lead at the break.
Hassan Robinson helped the Tigers (4-22) cut into the lead by scoring 16 of his game-high 20 points in the second half to trim the lead to 34-32 at the 11:55 mark. The game went back and forth as teams traded baskets for the next 7 minutes.
Following a timeout the Tigers turned up the pressure as they forced the Broncos into a turnover and finally tied the ballgame 45-45 on a Robinson conventional 3-point play with 4:38 remaining. Kenny Haywood’s follow-up basket broke the tie and put FSU in the lead with 1:41 remaining. Chapman’s free throws down the stretch ended the Tigers’ valiant attempt for an upset.
The Broncos dominated the boards by outrebounding the Tigers 40-25 and forced them into shooting 30 percent from the floor.
Zola Tomatala led the Tigers on the glass with 7 rebounds, while Steven Hitch dished out 4 assists.
Fayetteville State will match-up against the Bulldogs of Bowie State in tomorrow’s quarterfinals scheduled to tip-off at 3:00 p.m.
The Lady Rams came alive at the 7:20 mark of the first half when they began their own 10-0 run to climb back into the game at 21-18. A Bedgood layup with five minutes left broke the scoring drought, but the Rams answered with two Kamesha Harris layups to cut the lead to 23-22 with 4:06 to go. Harris would finish the game with eight points and four blocked shots.
The Lady Rams took their first lead of the game with 42 seconds left in the half on a layup by Whitted, but Kristen Snead’s putback with 18 seconds left would give the Lady Vikings the lead heading into the break.
The Lady Rams did a good job in the second half of packing the middle and allowed just four of Bedgood’s 15 points in the half. After early foul trouble, Daminica Moody came on to score 10 second-half points and Ruffin finished with four steals.