Bluefield State men upset defending champs
Virginia State men, Elizabeth City women advance
Wednesday’s CIAA Tournament action got off to a fast start.
What was billed as a David vs. Goliath matchup ended with the defending tournament champions eliminated by the conference’s newest member.
In a game that featured nine ties and 11 lead changes, the Bluefield State men defied the odds and defeated Winston-Salem State, 67-66, in overtime to advance to the quarterfinals, where it will face Virginia Union.
“This is a fun group of guys to coach,” Big Blue coach Devin Hoehn said. “These guys never gave up from the opening tip all the way to the end.”
Ja’Mere Redus’ layup with less than a minute left in overtime proved to be the difference as the Big Blue held All-CIAA duo Jaylen Alston and Isaac Parson in check on the final possession to seal the upset victory. Redus was heard throughout the arena yelling “I’m going to bring us home” just seconds before hitting the game-winning basket.
“We had to look to somebody in that moment,” he said. “So I stepped up.”
Adjusting to the unconventional 10:00 a.m. start time, the game was a tale of two offensive styles.
Winston-Salem State relied heavily on Alston, the CIAA Player of the Year as he dominated with 34 points and 15 rebounds, but he was one of just two Rams to score in double figures.
The Big Blue, meanwhile, had five players score in double figures as everyone was needed to take down a heavily favored Rams squad. Jordan Hinds finished with a 16-point 11-rebound double-double and Nduka Ogwu added 14 points and 10 rebounds of his own.
“That’s what’s supposed to happen when you play within the system,” Hoehn said. “Everybody eats.”
With the tournament’s biggest upset under their belts, the Big Blue men look to pass on the same message that the women’s team shared now that both programs have come to Baltimore and introduced themselves loudly.
“A lot of people don’t know about us,” Hinds said. “But I bet they know now.”
Virginia State men shake off disastrous start to win
Normally one of the loudest and most well-traveled groups in the CIAA, the Trojan Explosion Marching Band was silent during the opening moments of Virginia State’s quarterfinal matchup.
Their beloved men’s team, in the blink of an eye, trailed 15-0.
While everyone in the stands panicked, coach Lonnie Blow Jr. stayed calm and the Trojans chipped away. After reclaiming the lead late in the first half, they never trailed again, advancing to the semifinals with a 66-56 win.
“It’s hard trying to keep the faith when you’re down like that,” Blow said. “We kept coming, got a little bit of momentum and then it was on from there.”
An opening 0-for-10 shooting slump hampered the Trojans as they often settled for tough outside shots. Desperate for a change, Blow implored his team to look inside, bruising the Golden Bulls and earning extra possessions, all while wearing their opponents down for the long haul.
“We started being more aggressive and driving to the basket,” Blow said. “We put our heads down and attacked instead of settling.”
When on the attack, Jared Clawson was hard to stop. The junior finished with a gamehigh 15 points and shook off some early struggles of his own. He credited his teammates for keeping his confidence high as they looked to him to lead.
“Everybody just wanted to be here,” he said. “We came together as a team.”
With the lead secured, the Trojans’ dominance inside widened the gap even more as they started to control the defensive glass. Switching to a zone defense, many secondhalf possessions ended with Johnson C. Smith taking a deep, contested shot and big men such as Tremere Brown and Dajour Rucker pulling down the rebound.
“It all came down to the fact that I didn’t want to go home,” said Brown, who finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds. “I just wanted it more.”
With Brown and Rucker (11 points, 10 rebounds) each finishing with a double-double, the pair joined Clawson and Jonathan Norfleet as four Trojans finished the game scoring in double figures. The team was all smiles as the final seconds went off the clock, a far cry from the scene during an early firsthalf timeout.
“We almost gave coach a heart attack,” Clawson said, shaking his head. “But this tournament is all about survival and now we know we can survive anything together.”
— Timothy Dashiell Defending champion Elizabeth City women advance
Outplayed and outhustled in the first half, Elizabeth City coach Tynesha Lewis knew she needed to send a message to her top-seeded team.
The third-year coach used halftime to
deliver a needed wake-up call, and the defending CIAA champion Vikings came alive in the third quarter on their way to a 64-60 win over St. Augustine’s of Raleigh, North Carolina.
“I just went in and said, ‘We’re fine. We’re going to come out in this third quarter and we’re going to do what we do. Be more aggressive. Don’t let the game happen to us; let’s impact the game.’ [We] came out and just attacked, went to the basket more and just played our game.”
Led by guards Dy’Jhanik Armfield (16 points, six rebounds) and Alanis Hill (11 points, six rebounds), as well as center Rashauna Grant (10 points, eight rebounds), Elizabeth City took control with an 11-0 third-quarter run, capped by back-to-back driving layups by Hill, turning a three-point deficit into a 41-33 lead in less than three minutes.
After going scoreless in the first half, Hill, the Vikings’ lone representative on the All-CIAA team, scored nine in the quarter as her team built its lead to as many as 14 points.
The Vikings (19-10) advance to Friday’s semifinals at noon, when they will face the winner of Thursday’s game between Claflin and Shaw. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m., with the winner gaining an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Players attributed their early rust, including falling behind by as many as seven, to sitting idle with a first-round bye.
“We knew coming in it was going to be a dogfight, especially when they had 40 minutes above us [in tournament play],” Armfield said. “They played hard, we played hard. We just thought we played hardest.”
Guard Janiya Reed scored 16 to lead St. Augustine’s (15-13), which also got 14 points and 11 rebounds from guard Lauren Banks and 13 and 13 from forward Taniyah Greene. The Falcons looked particularly strong early, building a seven-point lead when Banks hit a jumper and then nailed a 3-pointer following a change of possession.
Poor free throw shooting hurt the Falcons, who made just six of 13 attempts in the second half.