[Box Score]
CEDARVILLE, Ohio - On Friday night, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament tipped off at the Callan Athletic Center on the campus of top seed Cedarville University.
In the second semifinal, #1 Cedarville University played host to #4 Urbana University. The top-seeded Yellow Jackets took both regular-season games from the Blue Knights by an average of 17.5 points per contest. Cedarville played to its strength and advanced to the G-MAC Championship Finals with a 79-58 victory over Urbana, setting up a match-up with #3 seed Trevecca Nazarene University, who took down Central State in the earlier semifinal.
Cedarville jumped out to an early lead and didn’t look back behind its skilled long range shooting. In the first 20 minutes, the Yellow Jackets converted on eight of its 18 attempts from beyond the arc. In fact, they made only 11 total shots in the half, but again, eight of them were from three-point distance. At the break, CU held a 33-16 advantage and seemed to be cruising.
In the second half, Urbana played with some intensity and closed the gap slightly, but it was too much to overcome as the solid shooting performance continued for Cedarville. For the game, CU shot an amazing 53.8% from the field, including 39.3% from long range (11-28).
The Yellow Jackets were led by G-MAC All-Conference First Team selection, Zach Brown, who netted 20 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Brown’s hot hand featured six three-pointers out of his seven total field goal makes. Austin Foote joined Brown in double-figures with 18 points.
Urbana was led by Danny Goins, who scored a game-high 25 points on 10-19 shooting, while C.J. Reid scored 13 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. The Blue Knights were held to 35.6% shooting and went only 6-22 from the three-point line.
On the boards, Cedarville held a big advantage 40-29, despite being out-rebounded on the offensive end by Urbana, 12-11.
Saturday’s Championship Final will feature Cedarville and Trevecca Nazarene who split its regular-season meetings, with the home team winning each contest. The game is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. and will be broadcast live on G-MACsports.com; YellowJackets.Cedarville.edu; and TNUTrojans.com. Video, Audio, and Stats will be available, courtesy of Cedarville University.