Friday, March 02, 2007

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Second-seeded Belmont overwhelmed No.6 Campbell 79-63 Friday night to set the pairings for Saturday's championship game of the 2007 General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Men's Basketball Championship. With Friday night's semifinal win in the Memorial Center the Bruins earned a chance to defend their title and capture the league's automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. To reach that goal, Belmont must beat East Tennessee State on its home court in front of a nationally televised audience (ESPN2, 4 p.m.).

The Bruins (22-9) overwhelmed Campbell defensively, holding the high-scoring Camels to just 63 points and 38 percent shooting. Four Belmont players reached double-figures scoring, led by Justin Hare's 13. Henry Harris added 10 points, but despite the leading scorers it wasn't a guard-oriented offensive attack for the Bruins. Against the much smaller Camels, Belmont pounded the ball inside all night. Boomer Herndon recovered from a slow opening game to post 12 points and five rebounds. Andrew Preston was even better, narrowly missing a double-double with 12 points and eight boards.

The Bruins made their move in the early going. Intent on working the ball inside, Belmont did this with efficiency. Preston, Herndon and Matthew Dotson continually scored in the post. When the Camels tried to pack it, the Belmont guards found the range. Hare's 3-pointer with 8:04 left in the first gave the Bruins their first double-figure lead. That advantage would swell to 15 on Hare's second 3.

It took the Camels a while to make the offensive adjustments against the league's top defensive team. Jake Wohlfeil finally pumped some life into the team with a long-range jumper. That keyed an 11-4 run. From there, the teams traded jabs and Belmont took a 41-30 lead into the break.

The Camels (14-17) tried to make a game of it in the second half. Jonathan Rodriguez hit back-to-back driving buckets and with a free throw tallied five quick points. Eric Smith hit a 3-pointer and made two free throws to make it 52-46 with14:28 left. A chance to cut the deficit even further went awry, however, and Belmont responded with a 3-pointer from Dotson that spelled the beginning of the end.

From that point, Belmont outscored the Camels 21-8. Rodriguez had a big game for Campbell with 16 points and five rebounds but it could have been bigger. He picked two quick personals to start each half and sat a good portion of the contest. Smith and Ledell Eackles had 10 each for the Camels.

General Notes
- Despite the difference in seeding, Belmont's win was just the 5th in eight tries in battles of No.2 versus No.6.
- The Bruins will try to become the 5th team in league history to repeat as tournament champions. History is on their side. The No.2 seed has won the last three A-Sun titles.
- Belmont leads the all-time series with Campbell 14-2 and takes the season series 2-1.

Belmont Notes
- One night after getting the first double-double of his career, Andrew Preston narrowly missed a second with 12 points and eight rebounds against Campbell.
- Nine different Bruins have scored in double figures in the last four games. Four did it on Friday.
- The Bruins have held eight straight opponents under 42 percent shooting. Campbell shot 38 percent.
- Belmont likes Memorial Center. Not only have the Bruins won 39 games away from home in the last three years, they have now won seven straight in Johnson City.

Campbell Notes
- The loss snaps Campbell's season-best three game winning streak.
- Despite falling to Belmont, Campbell's season was still a success. The 14 wins is the best since 1995-96.
- The Camels continued their trend of getting to the free-throw line. Haven taking and made more free throws than anyone else in the conference, they outshot Belmont from the line 19-for-28 to 16-for-24.
- Campbell averaged a conference best 16 assists per game, but fell short Friday with only 11.