IT'S ON
Tournament Pairings
Women's Bracket
Men's Bracket
57th Annual CIAA Men's Basketball Tournament
Saturday, March 2, 2002
BEARS WIN FIRST CIAA CHAMPIONSHIP
RALEIGH, NC---The Shaw University Bears put on a show for their hometown faithful Saturday night as they won the school's first Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship with a 82-68 win over the defending CIAA champion Golden Bulls of Johnson C. Smith University.
The 2002 CIAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Coach Joel Hopkins saw his squad fend off a late charge by the Golden Bulls (22-7) as they pulled away at the end. The Bears took a 43-28 lead into halftime and watch the Golden Bulls chase them the rest of the way.
"Winning the CIAA Tournament is like winning the national championship for us," said Hopkins. "Our goal was to go undefeated but we couldn't do that. Our next goals were to win the division, which we did, then win the tournament. Now we want to win the South Atlantic Regional and we'll see about a national championship after that," he added.
Already ranked third in the South Atlantic Region, the Bears earned the automatic berth into the Division II Playoffs while the Golden Bulls are almost a certain lock to receive an at-large bid.
Antoine Sims struggled during the game, but his lone 3-pointer and a free throw brought the Golden Bulls to within 74-68 with 1:17 to go. 2002 CIAA Player of the Year and Tournament Most Valuable Player Ronald Murray then missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Steve Bynes was there for the stickback. Vernon Benjamin was whistled for charging on the other end and Jarrett Kearse ended any comeback hopes with a putback and free throw.
The Bears came out shooting from 3-point range early and often and finished 13-for-28 from that distance. Gerald Raymond hit all four trey attempts in the second half and was 7-for-11 while scoring a game-high 25 points. Harrell Butler was almost perfect from the field (7-9) and finished with 16 points while Murray chipped in with 12 points, eight assists and three steals.
"I think Murray is the best player in college basketball," said Hopkins.
Conversely, the Golden Bulls made just 6-of-25 from behind the arc. All-CIAA performer Sims was held to just 10 points while he hit 1-of-9 from 3-point range but dished out five assists. Benjamin led the Golden Bulls with 15 points and Marco Spears had 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Wayne Hinton's free throws with 4:31 to play got the Bears' lead under double digits (70-61) for the first time since the 12:27 mark of the first half. But each time the Golden Bulls looked like they were about to start a serious run at cutting into the Bears' lead, the Bears would halt it with the 3-ball. Raymond would get the Bears lead back into double digits with a trey to stretch the lead back to 73-61. The first time the Golden Bulls cut it to 13, Murray buried a 3-pointer. With 10:03 left to play, the Bears' lead was 62-51 after a Hinton trey, but Raymond hit his third triple of the half while falling down to punch it back up to 14 points.
In the first half, already up nine points at the 11:25 mark, the Bears went on the 21-8 run to take their biggest lead of the game, 43-21, with 2:35 left in the half. The Bears were getting it done from long range and weren't missing much. They would finish the first half 8-of-20 from behind the arc with five different players connecting. Raymond led the 3-point barrage with three at the break.
The Golden Bulls took a measure of momentum into the break as they outscored the Bears 7-0 in the last 2:12 of the half, with Benjamin scoring five during the run.
While the Bears didn't miss much from the field, the Golden Bulls did, and they got handled on the boards in the first half by a 26-15 margin. The Golden Bulls were hurt inside when Jamaal Young, who scored the team's first six points, exited shortly thereafter with his second personal foul.