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CAA Tournament: Quarterfinal Action

Patriots pull away for the win George Mason held off a never-say-die Northeastern team Saturday night to advance to the CAA semifinals.

The No. 3 seeded Patriots opened the game with a 13-point lead at halftime to only see it slowly dwindle away in the second half. The No. 6 seeded Huskies, however, could never pull any closer than five points.

Late-game free throws lead George Mason to a 63-52 victory.

Senior Folarin Campbell led the Patriots with 20 points, including hitting 10 of 13 free throws; senior Will Thomas added 17 points and eight rebounds.

The Patriots were consistent all night, hitting 54.8 percent of their shots. Northeastern shot just 35.9 percent, including only two of 13 from Matt Janning.

George Mason dominated the boards, grabbing 13 more rebounds that Northeastern.

George Mason's win avenges a 73-55 loss the Patriots suffered to Northeastern in the regular season finale a week ago.

"When we played Northeastern last weekend, we clearly did things we didn't want to do," said Patriots head coach Jim Larranaga . "Tonight we corrected all those errors."

George Mason will face UNC Wilmington at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.  

UNC Wilmington soars over Delaware  

 

Though it started off as a closely contested game, No. 2 UNC Wilmington easily pulled away from the No. 7 University of Delaware Blue Hens in the second half to win 82-59. 

Delaware forward Herb Courtney pulled down 19 points and seven rebounds for the night, but Wilmington's defense kept the Hens to only 29 percent shooting in the second half.

 

"I thought we did a really good job of playing a complete game in our first tourmnament game," said Wilmington head coach Benny Moss . "I though we handled the situation well. We played offensively like we have all year. Sometimes in tournament settings, [in] that first game you have to play through the jitters, but I thought our guys did a tremendous job of that as is evident with our shooting percentage. I thought we attacked when it was right to attack and we executed when it was right to execute."

 

Wilmington had four players that made at least 10 points on the night, with Daniel Fountain shooting a team high 18 and playmaker Chad Tomko pulling down 17 points. Senior 6-10 Vladamir Kuljanin had nine rebounds and 14 points.

 

The Seahawks advance to play Sunday in the semifinals against the winner of   George Mason/Northeastern game.

  

Tribe escape with another close win  For the second straight day, William & Mary pulled out a nail biter.

With the Tribe holding a small lead for much of the second half, Old Dominion University tied the game at 60 with just 38.3 seconds to go.

William & Mary answered with a big three-pointer from senior Nathan Mann with 7.5 seconds to go to make it 63-60. ODU failed at its last-second shot.

"I got a good look," Mann said. "It was about time I hit a big shot."

The Tribe came into the CAA tournament losing six of its last seven games, but now the No. 5 seed has a semifinals match-up with Virginia Commonwealth University on Sunday.

Saturday's win didn't come without some major first-half struggles.

The Tribe started 0-10 from the field and shot just 29.2 percent from the field.

"We had to battle through it," said head coach Tony Shaver . "We got better shots as the ball game went along."

"Better shots" is an understatement. William & Mary hit 73.7 percent of its field goal attempts in the second half, including going six of seven from three-point land.

Danny Sumner and Laimis Kisielius lead the Tribe with 16 points each. Mann's three-pointer gave him 10 points for the game.

ODU struggled to hit baskets for much of the game, making only 37.5 percent of its shots, including going seven of 21 in three-pointers.

William & Mary's narrow victory comes a day after beating Georgia State with a big three-pointer from David Schneider, who had 9 points Saturday.

The Tribe's game on Sunday will be the first time the team has played in the CAA semifinals since 1998. Saturday's win was the first time William & Mary won two games in the tournament.

"It's an honor to be part of turning this program around," Mann said.

Photos by John Tatum.  

CAA Tournament Reading Room

w Hoopin' at the CAA 2008 CAA Basketball Tournament : Our RBlog takes you on a journey through the tournament.

w First round action : Northeastern, Delaware, William & Mary and Towson capture wins on day one.

w VCU takes on Towson : Highlights of Saturday's first quarterfinal matchup.