Posted: Mar 11, 2011
POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. -- Matt Edmonds' tip-in with less than one second remaining gave the University of St. Francis (Ind.) a dramatic 76-74 victory over Bellevue University in the second round of the NAIA Division II Men's Basketball National Tournament Friday afternoon at Keeter Gymnasium on the College of Ozarks campus.
St. Francis (26-9), the defending national champions, will meet Davenport (29-5) in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 1 p.m. Bellevue ends its season at 28-6.
Junior Jelani Johnson led the Bruins with a career-high 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting, while adding four assists and three rebounds. Senior Avery Tyler added 20 points and two assists. Junior Ousseynou Diop was the third Bruin in double figures with 13 points, while also adding seven rebounds and six blocked shots.
DeJovaun Sawyer-Davis (21) and Qadr Owens (20) combined for 41 points to lead the Cougars, who held BU scoreless for the final four minutes of the game.
After the Bruins raced out to a 20-13 lead, the Cougars closed the half on a 30-14 run to gain a 43-34 halftime advantage. Despite outshooting USF 53.9 to 47.1 percent in the opening half, the Cougars connected on four 3-pointers, while the Bruins were 0-of-4 from behind the arc.
Owens paced the Cougars with 19 points in the first period. Johnson and Diop both scored eight points to lead BU's scoring effort in the opening half.
The Cougars led by as many as 11 points in the second half. The Bruins, however, used an 8-0 run on a 3-pointer by Ben Imig and five-straight points from Tyler to gain their first lead at 60-58 with 9:22 remaining in the contest.
St. Francis responded with five-straight points to regain the lead at 63-60. The two teams battled the rest of the way with neither team leading by more than four points.
A Tyler free throw gave Bellevue a four-point lead at 74-70 at the four-minute mark before the Cougars ended the game on a 6-0 run, capped by Edmonds' putback of Ethan Hussey's baseline jumper with 0.8 seconds remaining. After two-straight timeouts, the Bruins could not get a shot off as time expired.
Notes:
- The Bruins were making their ninth-straight appearance in the NAIA Division II Men's Basketball National Tournament.
- Bellevue owns an 18-12 all-time record in the National Tournament
- Head coach Shane Paben is 7-3 in National Tournament games
- The loss snapped the Bruins' nine-game winning streak
