‘Cats madness ends in sadness

Men

Kennesaw State outscored Georgia College & State University 16-3 in overtime to take a 79-66 victory on Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Peach Belt Conference Tournament at The Lumpkin Center in Columbus, Ga. The Owls, the No. 2 seed in the South Division, advance to Saturday’s semifinals against Augusta State, the North Division’s top seed.

In a contest that featured the sixth overtime of the tournament and the second in men’s play, KSU dominated on paper, outshooting and outrebounding the scrappy Bobcats; but the Owls kept GC&SU in the game with 24 turnovers, 12 coming off Bobcat steals. KSU improves to 23-8 with the victory, while GC&SU ends its season at 14-13.

Kennesaw jumped out to a quick 15-5 lead in the first 5:24 of the game. The Owls led by as much as 12 with 4:05 remaining before the Bobcats outscored KSU 12-2 to close out the half. Rodney Keener had six of GC&SU’s points during the run while the Owls managed just one field goal during that span.

KSU led again in the second half by six with 11:49 to play when GC&SU went on a 15-5 run over the next six minutes to pull ahead by six, their largest lead of the game, with 5:14 to play. But a three-pointer from Tommy Thompson and four straight points from Reggie McCoy tied the game once again with 2:49 to play.

Thompson sank a pair of free throws with 17 seconds left in regulation, but Daryl Ruffus answered with a clutch jumper with eight seconds to play that sent the game into overtime. KSU scored the first six points of the extra period and cruised to victory from there.

McKoy led the Owls with 16 points and nine rebounds while Terrence Hill added 15 points and five boards. Brandon Moore also scored 11 and Will Davis 10 for KSU. Rodney Keener turned in another outstanding tournament play in the losing effort with 20 points and six rebounds. Johnnie Stafford added 18 points, six steals, four steals and three rebounds.

Columbus State University used a balanced and dominating attack to improve to 17-0 on its homecourt at the Lumpkin Center, as the Lady Cougars defeated Georgia College & State University 74-63, to conclude the quarterfinal round of the Peach Belt Conference Tournament.

CSU, the South Division’s No. 2-seed, improved to 26-2 on the season
and will play Francis Marion University next, who is seeded fifth out of the North Division, in Saturday’s semifinals at 3 p.m. GC&SU, which was the South’s No. 6-seed, concluded its season at 13-16 overall.

Women

The Lady Bobcats, who upset USC Spartanburg in the first round on Tuesday, looked primed to defend its 2002 PBC Tournament title by draining three consecutive three-pointers in jumping out to an early 12-3 lead.

Columbus State then put its fullcourt press and fastbreak offense into high gear, taking the lead to stay at 14-12 with 13:08 until the break. With CSU ahead 24-22 at the 7:45 mark of the first half, the Lady Cougars then outscored GC&SU 17-4 in taking a 41-26 advantage into halftime.

CSU maintained a double digit lead throughout the second stanza and Lucia Heston drained a three-pointer to stretch the lead to 54-34 with 14:28 to play in the game. With the score 56-36, the Lady Bobcats scored nine unanswered points to close within 11, but could not cut the margin down any further.

Freshman Erin Gibbs led four Lady Cougars in double figure scoring with 15 points while adding 12 rebounds in her first postseason tournament game. Heston and Candace Turner each scored 13 points and Courtney Favors finished with 12 points. CSU outrebounded the Lady Bobcats 52-37.

Breane Haggard led GC&SU with 14 points and Andrea Lee scored 11, while Dalana Watson grabbed 10 rebounds.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 14 2003. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry