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57th Annual CIAA Men’s Basketball Tournament
Thursday, February 27, 2002
JCSU’s Benjamin Charges Golden Bulls Past
St. Augustine’s Into CIAA Semifinals
RALEIGH, NC – Sophomore guard Vernon Benjamin sparked Johnson C. Smith University in the second half to charge the Golden Bulls to a 81-59 victory over Saint Augustine’s College in second round play of the CIAA Tournament at the ESA in Raleigh, NC.
J.C. Smith (21-6), the regular season CIAA Western Division title winners and reigning conference champions, advances to the tournament semifinals to play the winner of the Bowie State/Fayetteville State contest on Friday at 7 p.m.
Benjamin came off the Golden Bull bench to score a team-best 18 points, including 14 in the second half. JCSU senior center Jamaal Young amassed a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, while Marco Spears added 12 points and Antoine Sims and Wayne Hinton contributed 10 points apiece.
St. Augustine’s (13-13) was topped by Patrick Pope with 21 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals. Falcon senior Charles Ward finished with 16 points, but scored just one point after intermission.
“We had a little bit of a lead going into the second half, but we were able to increase that lead and I thought we did it with defense,” said JCSU head coach Steve Joyner, whose Golden Bulls converted 26 Falcon turnovers into 33 points.
J.C. Smith took control of the game in the second half with a 18-2 run to capture a 70-46 lead at 6:17. Hinton started the stretch with a three-pointer at 14:18 and Tyson Bates later hit a back-breaking triple with one second on the shot clock. Benjamin scored 10 of the team’s 18 points during the Golden Bull run.
The two squads battled through the first 10 minutes of the contest, with five ties and three lead changes. Johnson C. Smith then utilized a 16-6 run, capped off with a running bank shot by Earl Foreman, to take a 37-26 advantage at 5:17. St. Augustine’s closed out the half with a 5-2 spurt to narrow the deficit to 47-39 at the break.
The difference maker in the first half came at the charity stripe. The Golden Bulls hit 16-of-20 (80 percent), while the Falcons made 6 free throws in only 8 trips to the foul line. JCSU also scored 13 second chance points on 13 offensive boards, compared to just 2 points on 3 offensive rebounds for SAC.