Big South Tournament – Semifinals
(Note: All tournament games are played at the home court of the higher seeded team.)
(1) Winthrop 78, (4) Birmingham-Southern 64
Winthrop extended its winning streak to seventeen games and will appear in its fifth Big South championship game of the last seven years after beating Birmingham-Southern, 78-64. BSC played well to start the game, holding leads of 9-3 and 12-7, but Winthrop took control from that point, building the lead to double-figures late in the first half and then never letting the Panthers get closer than nine points the rest of the way.
Winthrop sophomore guard Torrell Martin was the catalyst for the big Eagles’ run in the first half, scoring eighteen of his career-high 25 points in the opening stanza. For the game, Martin connected on nine-of-fifteen field goal attempts, including five- of-eight three-pointers. Martin also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds in the contest to lead the way for the Eagles. The Eagles shot 50 percent from the field as a team and held the Panther shooters to only 37.3 percent for the contest. Three other Eagles joined Martin in double-figures, with sophomore forward Phillip Williams and junior forward James Shuler each scoring twelve points, while junior forward Otis Daniels scored 11 points.
Birmingham-Southern was led by senior guard Jakob Sigurdarson’s sixteen point effort. The Panthers also got a solid game from junior forward Thomas Viglianco, who scored all fifteen of his points from the three-point arc. The loss ends the Panthers’ season at 16-14 overall.
Winthrop will take its 26-5 overall record, their seventeen game winning streak, and their 15-0 home record to the championship game on Saturday against Charleston Southern. The game will be played at the Winthrop Coliseum, where the Eagles earlier beat the Bucs this season, 58-45.
(7) Charleston Southern 58, (6) High Point 55
High Point dominated the first half, but Charleston Southern came out of the locker room on fire and was able to erase a thirteen point halftime deficit and comeback to beat the Panthers, 58-55. The Buccaneers won their second consecutive road game in the Big South Tournament and will now hit the road again to face Winthrop in the championship game on Saturday afternoon.
Charleston Southern started the game flat and fell behind early due to poor shooting and tough defense by High Point. The Buccaneers only made one out of their fifteen three-point attempts in the first half, and fell behind 31-18 going into the break. However, the Bucs were able to find their outside shot in the second half, making six-of-eleven treys. Sophomore guard Donnell Covington was the spark in the second half, scoring all seventeen of his points in the final twenty minutes, making four three-pointers. Senior forward Kurtis Rice led CSU in scoring with nineteen points, and also led the team in rebounding with ten boards.
High Point did have an opportunity to tie the game at the end, but senior forward Danny Gathings was unable to connect on a three-pointer at the buzzer, leading to a celebration from the unlikely finalists from Charleston. The Panthers were led senior guard Zione White, who scored twelve points, along with junior guard Mark Wilson, who also scored twelve in the game.
The Bucs now face the task of taking on the top seed Winthrop Eagles at the Winthrop Coliseum on Saturday for the Big South Championship. CSU lost both meetings between the two teams this year, but did lead both games at the half and forced overtime when the two teams met last week at the CSU Fieldhouse before losing, 65-62. Charleston Southern is making its first appearance in the finals since 1997, when they beat Liberty to go to their only NCAA Tournament.
