UCO tops ASU, 85-75, in men's championship
Playing in his first game since being named Player of the Year in the North Division, Central Oklahoma forward Sam Belt led all scorers with 33 points, leading the Bronchos to an 85-75 win over Angelo State Wednesday night in LSC Championship quarterfinals.
The Bronchos (23-5) advance to the semifinal round where they will play Tarleton State Friday night. The Texans, the No. 2 seed, are the highest remaining seed in the LSC South after No. 1 ranked West Texas A&M was upended by Texas A&M-Commerce earlier in the day.
Central Oklahoma will look to avenge a 73-70 overtime loss at Tarleton back on Jan. 3, the only meeting between the two teams during the regular season.
The Bronchos, who went 11-1 in LSC North play this season, got 33 points off the bench, including 19 from Eric Cazenave.
UCO pushed the lead to 20 points with 8:34 to play, but the Rams didn't back down, even playing without leading scorer Marcus Hubbard for the entire second half because of an injury. But the Rams battled back, mostly behind Mason Hamilton, who scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half, led by six 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes.
Angelo State (17-11) got as close as eight points with just less than three minutes to play and had a chance to trim it to five but a 3-point attempt by Mason rimmed out with just under a minute remaining in regulation.
The Bronchos were able to put the game away at the foul line, where they spent the majority of the game. UCO hit 27 of 35 free throws, mostly led by Belt, who connected on 15-of-18 attempts at the stripe.
In the first half, UCO used a 10-0 run late in the first half to build a 13-point lead with 4:48 to play.
Angelo State grabbed some momentum with 3:50 remaining in the first half when star forward Hubbard went down on a hard foul by Brian Walker, who was called for an intentional foul. Hubbard got free on a breakaway and attempted a slam dunk before he was hit by Walker. Hubbard went hard to the ground and even hit his head on the floor. After a few minutes on the ground, Hubbard left on his own power and although he quickly returned for less than a minute of action, he left the game again and never returned, ailing from an injury.
Led by Barfield, who scored seven straight points, the Rams were able to trim the lead to eight by halftime at 40-32.
ASU QUOTES
Fred Rike:
Opening Statement: "UCO has a good team. We played well, too but
we
made too many mistakes. The problem that we had was that we
weren't
poised."
On Sam Belt: "He's a craft. He's a smart player. He can shoot
the
ball. He's a big difference. Making 15 of 18 free throws is a
good
effort."
More On Sam Belt: "He's very crafty. Stopping him was our game
plan.
One of our plans to stop him was to put Marcus (Hubbard) on him.
He
did a decent job on him. We threw the 'kitchen sink', everything
we
had at him."
On the injury to Marcus Hubbard: "He's a first team all-Lone
Star
Conference player and should be a first team all-region player.
It
hurt us. Our guys continued to battled hard. It was his last game.
He
came to us wanting to go back into the game. I told my assistant
coach
to have him go run in the hall and we would make a decision.
He
couldn't do it."
Maso Hamilton:
On the Game: "Nobody wanted it to end tonight. We have a good
bunch of
guys coming back next year. UCO is not going to give us a
rematch."
On UCO: "They are a good team and a class act. It was a tough
season.
We had a lot of jitters. We beat them on the glass, but it just
did
not go our way."
Terry Evans
Central Oklahoma
"We came out and knowing that stopping (Marcus) Hubbard was going to be a key for us. I thought we could guard Angelo and hold them to 60 points or less. I felt like they really had to earn their points."
"We got a lot of momentum going when Sam (Belt) got going. He put on a show inside for us. He did a good job getting to the foul and converting. I thought when Eric got hot from the perimeter it really made a difference."
(On Sam Belt)
"Sam does it every game for us. You look at the stat sheet and every game he's filling it up for us in points, rebounds assists. On a scale of one to 10, I would say he has a basketball I.Q. 10 ½.,
On paper he's not getting it done. Every game he fills out the reservation. That's their decision. We got a good team to.
(On Tarleton)
"Tarleton is a very physical team. They have a couple of Division I transfers who bring it at a different level. They are a tough team to score against. I feel we can guard them. They always play good defense and rebound. That's why they are always on top year after year.
Sam Belt.
"I felt like I had a good game, I wish I could've done better rebounding the ball. I always try to get a double-double each game. This time I fell short."
Eric Cazenave
"We got a lot of family and friends here so it's special anytime you can do it front of them."
ASU NOTES
Angelo State made its first appearance in the post-season in six years ... For the game, the Rams shot 51.0% (25-of-49) from the floor, 40% (8-of-20) from behind the arc and 70.8% (17-of-24) from the free throw line ... The Rams were whistled for 31 team fouls ... ASU committed 22 turnovers and allowed UCO to score 29 points off of the give aways ... Angelo State was outscored in the paint by a 34-18 margin but the Rams' bench outscored Central Oklahoma's bench, 41-33 ... Additionally, the Rams out-rebounded the Bronchos, 33-29 ... Four Rams finished in double-figure scoring - Maso Hamilton (23), Brice Nengsu (14), Quinn Barfield (12) and Marcus Hubbard (11) ... Senior Marcus Hubbard left the game with approximately four minutes left in the first half after he suffered an injury from an intentional foul by Central Oklahoma ... Hubbard had scored 11 points and blocked three UCO shots at that point ... Maso Hamilton sank 6-of-9 three-pointers en route to a season-high 23 points; the scoring output also marked the fifth time this season that he has scored in double figures and the third game that he has been ASU's leading scorer ... Additionally, he tied his season-high of six three-pointers which he first tallied against Abilene Christian on Feb. 17.
UCO Notes
UCO forward Sam Belt scored the third-highest points in an LSC Tournament game in school history with 33 . . . Belt recorded his 16th game of at least 20 points this year . . . Belt has now been the leading scorer for UCO in 18 of 28 games this season . . . UCO extended its streak of consecutive games with at least one 3-point basket to 602 games, dating back to 1987. The Bronchos connected on six of 17 attempts from beyond the arc . . . Central Oklahoma improved to 17-2 this season in the state of Oklahoma . . . UCO is now 15-12 in LSC Tournament action and have appeared in 15 of 18 tournaments since joining the conference in 1989-90 . . . UCO improved to 3-5 in tournament games under head coach Terry Evans, who took over in 2002-03 . . . Eric Cazenave came off the bench to score 19 points, just two shy of his season-high of 21.
