Semifinals Review

And the final is set. Monday night should produce another thrilling night of basketball. Let's look back at Sunday night first.

Western Carolina (3N) 82, UNC-Greensboro (1N) 77

Trevis Simpson and Derrell Armstrong showed why there is so much hope for the future for the Spartans. Simpson scored 21 and Armstrong scored 14. Armstrong lead the team in rebounds (seven) and assists (four). But the Spartans were barely beaten on the boards and were not fouled as often as the Catamounts. Aloysius Henry, who I thought would be the key to the game, scored just six points and had three rebounds. Henry did not play well, and that may well have been the difference in the game. He did not produce at the  level that I was expecting him too.

Can the Catamounts win their fourth game in four days on Monday night? Trey Sumler played all 40 minutes, scored 16 points, had 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Sumler was the receiver of quite a bit of heat earlier in the year, but he has proven during this tournament just how good he is. Harouna Mutombo continued to provide his senior leadership to the team, though. He scored 17 points. Keaton Cole also scored 17 points. He made 5 of 8 from downtown. Tawaski King is playing very well for the Catamounts. Sumler and Cole are making shots? Can they win their fourth game in four days? If they stay hot from three point range and continue to not get beaten on the boards, why not? I do worry about Sumler having played so many minutes already. It is also important to remember that The Citadel was not exactly the most taxing first round opponent. So  maybe there is a little bit more left in the tank than some teams playing their fourth game in four days would have. Western Carolina looked really very average against The Citadel. They have looked like anything but average since then.

Davidson (1S) 83, Elon (2N) 67

Austin Hamilton was not able to contribute as much as the Phoenix would have liked him to and that was a big detriment to Elon's hopes. Next year when he is 100%, they will be a different team. Jack Isenbarger and Lucas Troutman combined for 40 points. Elon was able to keep it close for a while, but it was not enough. They played hard, but just couldn't play defense in the second half well enough to come up with the win.

Jake Cohen, De'Mon Brooks, and Cris Czerapowicz combined for 56 points for the Wildcats. They shot nearly 47% from the field. They rebounded better than Elon, which was a big difference in the game. They also only turned the ball over five times. They only shot 30% from three point range, but they continued to get the ball inside and score from there. Davidson showed plenty of intensity in the second half as they went on their big run to put the game away. This was a good performance by Elon and will need to play with equal intensity against Western Carolina in the title game.