Top-Seed Catawba Tops Lenoir-Rhyne 74-70 In Food Lion SAC Men’s Basketball Semifinal

HICKORY, N.C. --- Antonio Houston scored 21 points as top-seeded Catawba College rallied from an eleven-point deficit to defeat No. 4 Lenoir-Rhyne College 74-70 in Saturday's semifinal game of the 2007 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament. The Catawba Indians (20-9) advance to Sunday's championship game, while Lenoir-Rhyne ends its season at 18-10.

Catawba placed four players in double figures, including Houston, Brian Graves, Ahmad Murphy and Norman Monroe. Lenoir-Rhyne's Reggie Bratton led all scorers with 28 points as he went 8-for-12 from the floor and 12-of-16 from the free throw line.

The Bears scored the first 11 points of the contest, including Donte Watson who scored five of his 11 points on the day during the run. L-R would maintain its advantage through most of the first half, until Catawba responded with a 12-3 run to knot the game at 29-29 on Monroe's lay-up at the 4:15 mark. Both teams stepped up defensively for the remainder of the period, before the Bears took a 33-30 lead into intermission.

In the second half, Lenoir-Rhyne move out to a 42-35 advantage as Bratton converted a three-point play with 16:42 left in the game. Catawba took its first lead of the game at the 9:00 mark as Houston canned a pair of free throws to put his team up 51-50, following a 16-8 run.

The lead would change hands eight more times down the stretch as Catawba led by four (57-53) at the 7:14 mark after a Houston basket. The Bears would respond with a 9-2 spurt to move out to a 62-59 advantage as Josh Kindred buried two of his 18 points with 4:52 remaining. Kindred tied the game again four minutes later with his lay-up with 2:12 left on the clock and Bratton made a free throw to put the Bears up again 67-66 with 1:42 left.

Catawba answered with a 6-0 run, including a pair of free throws by Graves to give the Catawba Indians its largest lead of the game at 72-67 with 27 seconds remaining.

The Bears weren't done yet as Bratton was fouled while shooting a three-pointer with 6.8 seconds remaining as he made all three of his free throw attempts to trim the deficit to 72-70. But Houston put the game away when Houston made a pair of free throws with five seconds left to seal the win.

Kindred completed his double-double with 10 rebounds for the Bears, while Chris Wooldridge led all players on the boards with 11 reobunds to go along with his team-high five assists.

- SAC -

Quotes from Catawba head coach Jim Baker

About L-R's 11-0 start to open the game

"We've grown up a lot and we just started chipping away. We knew if we could get it close, it would come down to execution."

"This team has the ability to turn it up a little bit. I wish I could get them to play that hard defensively all the time."

Quotes from Lenoir-Rhyne head coach John Lentz

"We got into foul trouble in the second half. Our best two point guards aren't playing. We played hard though."

"We're by far not the most talented team in the league, we're about fifth, so we have to play hard"

"We don't have a true point guard out there... we have bubble gum sticking in different parts of the dam."

Newspaper Box Score
Lenoir-Rhyne vs Catawba
03/03/07 3:00 p.m. at Hickory, N.C. (CVCC Arena)
At Hickory, N.C. (CVCC Arena)
CATAWBA 74, LENOIR-RHYNE 70
LENOIR-RHYNE (18-10)
Bratton, Reggie 8-12 12-16 28; Kindred, Josh 8-16 2-4 18; Watson, Donte 5-8
0-1 11; Hinds, Stephen 3-6 0-0 6; Springs, Marcus 1-6 3-4 5; Crawford, Ryan
1-4 0-0 2; Cook, Jonathan 0-1 0-0 0; Allen, Darren 0-1 0-0 0; Mauldin, Eric
0-4 0-0 0. Totals 26-58 17-25 70.
CATAWBA (20-9)
Houston, Antonio 7-14 6-7 21; Graves, Brian 4-13 4-8 14; Murphy, Ahmad 4-4
4-7 13; Monroe, Norman 4-8 1-6 10; Wooldridge, Chris 3-8 0-0 6; Brinkley,
Montrell 2-2 2-2 6; Fields, Rob 0-4 2-2 2; Diggs, Jason 1-2 0-0 2. Totals
25-55 19-32 74.
Lenoir-Rhyne.................. 33 37 - 70
Catawba....................... 30 44 - 74
3-point goals-Lenoir-Rhyne 1-11 (Watson, Donte 1-2; Springs, Marcus 0-2;
Crawford, Ryan 0-1; Cook, Jonathan 0-1; Mauldin, Eric 0-3; Bratton, Reggie
0-2), Catawba 5-15 (Graves, Brian 2-6; Monroe, Norman 1-1; Murphy, Ahmad
1-1; Houston, Antonio 1-6; Fields, Rob 0-1). Fouled out--Lenoir-Rhyne-None,
Catawba-Monroe, Norman. Rebounds-Lenoir-Rhyne 39 (Kindred, Josh 10), Catawba
36 (Wooldridge, Chris 11). Assists-Lenoir-Rhyne 10 (Kindred, Josh 5),
Catawba 15 (Wooldridge, Chris 5). Total fouls-Lenoir-Rhyne 27, Catawba 21.
A-611
2007 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament (Semifinal)
#1 seed Catawba vs. #4 seed Lenoir-Rhyne
Catawba advances to Sunday's tournament final at 4 p.m.