BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Feb. 26, 2016) – The Sewanee men's basketball team earned its first postseason tournament victory since 2005, Friday, as the Tigers opened the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) Tournament with a 61-54 quarterfinal win over rival Rhodes inside Bill Battle Coliseum.
With the victory, Sewanee (19-7) moves on to Saturday's semifinals where the Tigers will play Centre at 8:00 p.m.
After a slow start, the Tigers took their first lead when Keshonn Carter hit a layup with 15:43 left in the first half.
Later in the half, with Rhodes ahead one, 23-22, Sewanee closed the first with a huge run the final 4:09. A layup by Seth Brown sparked a 10-1 run by the Tigers that gave Sewanee a nine-point lead, 33-24, at the break.
The Tigers opened the second half with a layup by Carter. With their lead at 11, Sewanee gave up a three by Rhodes's Brennan Sullivan and three straight points from Daniel Galvin. That allowed Rhodes to pull to within five, 39-34. After a 30 second Sewanee timeout, the Tigers settled back in.
A three by Brody Stone quickly helped Sewanee built its advantage back to 11, 45-36, three minutes later.
Again down double digits, the Lynx would not go away. Eventually, Rhodes chipped away at its deficit. After four straight points from J.J. Weir, Sewanee led by only two, 51-49, with 4:05 to play.
Down the stretch, the scored remained tight. Needing a big shot with 2:42 left, senior Matt Tomehit a three for Sewanee. After a Galvin layup, freshman Cody Jones then made another three to push the Tiger lead to five, 59-54, with less than a minute left.
From there, Stone and Clay Born hit key free throws to seal the win.
Overall, Sewanee made 46.4 percent of its attempts. Another big success was Sewanee's dominance on the glass. The Tigers outrebounded Rhodes, 38-21.
Individually, Jones finished with 16 points while Carter added 14. Brown came off the bench and added 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Galvin led Rhodes with 16 points going 7-of-11 from the field.
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