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Chris Davis and UW-Whitewater roll into the 2012
national title game. |
Cabrini and UW-Whitewater took very different paths to the same place. Cabrini won a thriller over Illinois Wesleyan while UW-Whitewater rolled past MIT. The Cavaliers and Warhawks will play for the national championship at 7 pm ET on Saturday.
Jeremy Knowles drained a three-point shot from the corner with seven seconds left to lift Cabrini past Illinois Wesleyan 71-68 and into the national championship game. For head coach Marcus Kahn, it was the reward for a lesson well taught.
The Titans led by nine with eight minutes to play, but the Cavaliers used their press to increase tempo and take the lead 76-73. After a John Koschnitzky basket and an Andrew Ziemnik free throw tied the game, the teams traded baskets. The Cavaliers took possession with 13 seconds left and gave the ball to freshman Aaron Walton-Moss. Moss got past his defender, collapsed the Titans defense and found Knowles for the winner.
John Boyd led Cabrini with 34 points, a career high, including seven three pointers. Jordan Zimmer paced Illinois Wesleyan with 19 points.
In the second semifinal, UW-Whitewater stiffled MIT in the second half and turned a halftime tie into a relatively comfortable win, 71-56. Will Tashman's tip in at the halftime buzzer pulled MIT even with UW-Whitewater at 26. After the Engineers briefly took the lead, UW-Whitewater ran off a 14-0 run to seize control of the game. MIT tried to shoot its way back into the game, but was just 3-for-20 from behind the arc.
Chris Davis continued his NCAA Tournament dominance for UW-Whitewater. He finished with 30 points including a three-pointer from the top of the arc to put an exclamation point on the Warhawks' victory. Eric Bryson added 10 points for UW-Whitewater. Will Tashman led MIT with 15 points and 14 rebounds.