Philander Smith men set for NAIA opening round

The Philander Smith men’s basketball team will play the University of the Cumberlands (Ky.) at 6 p.m. Central tonight at the O. Wayne Rollins Center in Williamsburg, Ky., in the opening round of the NAIA Tournament, which it qualified for by winning the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.

The Panthers, who enter the national tournament as a No. 15 seed, beat Southern University at New Orleans, Talladega (Ala.) College and Dillard (La.) University on their way to the conference title. Tougaloo (Miss.) College also made the NAIA Tournament from the GCAC because it took the regular-season title with a 15-3 record in conference play, one game better than Philander Smith. Tougaloo fell to Dillard in its first game of the conference tournament, but will enter as a No. 10 seed and face the University of Tennessee Southern at 6:30 p.m. Central tonight.

Philander Smith (21-8) rolled through the conference tournament, beating its three opponents by an average of 20.3 points per game. Raymond Reece, a 6-5 sophomore forward, leads the Panthers with 15.5 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, while 6-1 senior guard Christione Rufus and 6-6 senior forward Derrick Woods average 11.6 and 10.1 points, respectively.

The Panthers will be tasked with slowing down the well-rounded Cumberlands (26-4) offense, which has no players averaging 15 or more points but seven averaging at least nine a game. Jonathan Brown (14.4 points per game), Anthony Johnson (13.5) and J.J. Ramey (13.2) lead the Patriot attack.

If the Panthers pull off a first-round upset, they would face the winner of Marian (Ind.) College and Florida College.