IT'S ON
Tournament Pairings
Women's Bracket
Men's Bracket
57th Annual CIAA Men’s Basketball Tournament
Friday, March 1, 2002
Bears Late Surge Sends Them To the CIAA Finals
RALEIGH, NC – With 2:03 to play, 2002 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Player of the Year Ronald Murray sailed through the lane and his emphatic slam-dunk all but put the finishing touches of the Shaw University Bears 80-65 win over the Winston-Salem State University Rams as they advanced to their first CIAA Championship game since 1971.
The Bears (24-4) will now face the defending CIAA champion Johnson C. Smith University Golden Bulls on Saturday night at 8 p.m.
“This was a great win for the program,” said Bears’ head coach Joel Hopkins. “The last time we were in the championship round was 1971. These guys here are the start of a new era.”
Murray scored 12 of his game-high 28 points in the final 5:16 as the Bears pulled away during that stretch. He also added six assists, five rebounds and three steals.
“I took what the defense gave me,” Murray said. “They opened up lanes for me and gave me wide open shots and I took them,” he added.
The Bears took a 57-52 lead on a 3-pointer by Jarrett Kearse and a baseline jumper by Murray with 11:06 to play. The Rams had trailed by four just moments before but had tied the score on two inside shots by Tyrone Robeson. After Kamal Oliver turned the ball over Murray buried a trey to make it an 8-0 run to give the Bears a 60-52 lead. By the 6:43 mark, just after Murray fed Raymond for a fast-break layup, the Bears had built their lead to 64-54.
Gerald Raymond hit two 3s and finished with 10 points. Complimenting Murray and Raymond was the inside play of Kenyon Booker and Steve Bynes. Booker had 16 points and 12 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive glass, whalebones finished with 13 points and eight rebounds.
The Rams were an ineffective 5-of-28 from 3-point range, including a 0-for-14 performance in the second half. Devonaire Deas paced the Rams with 14 points and five assists, Shawn Alexander chipped in with 13 points, Kevin Henry had 12 points and Marcus Best hauled down 11 rebounds.
Trailing by four at the 12:26 mark of the first half, the Rams went on a 10-0 run to take a 23-17 lead with 7:14 to play. Deas scored six of 12 first-half points on the run, but was assessed a taunting technical foul after his last basket. Raymond knocked down both technical foul shots to stop the run. Bynes then hit two free throws to close the gap to two points, but Maynard responded with a conventional three-point play to boost the lead back to five.
Raymond eventually re-tied the game at 5:20 on a trey from the left corner. The teams traded shots the rest of the way and the Rams went into halftime with a 40-38 lead.