IT'S ON
Tournament Pairings
Women's Bracket
Men's Bracket
57th Annual CIAA Men’s Basketball Tournament
Wednesday, February 26, 2002
Falcons Stun Panthers
RALEIGH, NC – The game was all but over, but someone forgot to tell the Falcons of St. Augustine’s College.
Down 14 with 4:59 to play, the Falcons stormed back with a 25-7 run to close the game and sent the Panthers of Virginia Union University packing, 83-79.
The heroes were many for the Falcons, who now must take on the defending CIAA champion Johnson C. Smith University Golden Bulls in the 1 p.m. quarterfinal game on Thursday. With 14 seconds left, Jay Chapman scored his only points of the game as he hit a 3-pointer to bring the Falcons within 78-77. On the other end, Duan Crockett sank one-of-two free throws leaving the door open for the Falcons. Corey Evans took advantage of the opportunity as he drained a tough 3-pointer from the right corner to give the Falcons their first lead of the second half at 80-79 with 5.7 seconds to play.
Corin Turner traveled on the ensuing inbounds play for the Panthers and Patrick Pope sank one-of-two-free throws. After the Panthers threw away the inbounds pass, Pope hit two more from the charity stripe for the final.
Pope was the main man for the Falcons as he scored a game-high 39 points while dishing out three assists and had four of the Falcons’ 11 3-pointers. Desmond Peoples had 18 points and 11 rebounds while Charles Ward had 10 points and nine rebounds before fouling out. Justin Moore also added five assists.
There were no jitters for the freshman Crockett. Twice in the game with the Panthers seemingly in trouble, Crockett came through with big momentum-swinging baskets. He finished the game with 35 points and 13 rebounds.
The Panthers (13-13) saw their nine-point lead dwindle to two in the second half when Crockett sank a 3-pointer that ignited an 11-0 run that put the Panthers up 59-48.
Down by 14 with just under five minutes to play, the Falcons closed to within 75-72 with 37.5 seconds to play. Crockett sank two free throws but Peoples dunked on the other end to keep the game at three points.
The Falcons (12-13) were in command early in the game with a 16-8 lead at the 12:31 mark. That’s when Crockett first took matters into his own hands. He nailed a 3-pointer, hit two free throws, hit two more consecutive 3-pointers and after a Falcons timeout hit two more free throws. That was the first 12 points of a Panthers’ 15-0 run, of which he scored 13, and the Panthers led by seven, 23-16 with 6:51 to play in the half.