Friday's Madness

Seeing as championship week has officially started, we are going to be doing a new daily madness segment. Here, you can find the daily scores and schedules for every conference tournament game that day as Trizzle will once again be taking over BIAH. For a full schedule of the conference tournaments and a listing of the automatic bids, click here.


GAME OF THE DAY: Belmont 65, Mercer 64

Belmont's seniors have been to the NCAA tournament each of their three seasons in school, but it was freshman Mitch Hedgepeth who kept alive their chances of playing in four straight. The Bruins held a 59-48 lead with just 10:43 left, but Mercer was able to come back, eventually taking the lead 62-60 on a dunk by Daniel Emerson with 2:30 left. After a Belmont free throw cut the lead to 62-61, the Bruins Alex Renfroe drove and scored, putting Belmont back ahead with 32 seconds left. James Florence would respond by hitting a jumper to get the lead back with 9 seconds left. After a timeout, Belmont's Andy Wicke drove the lane, but was blocked by Mark Hall. The ball landed right in Hedgeweth's hands, and he went back up with it and scored with 0.2 on the clock for the win. Hedgeweth finished with five for Belmont, who was led by 15 from Renfroe and Wicke. Florence had 24 to lead Mercer. Belmont will advance to play East Tennessee State in the semis on Friday.

Belmont's Andy Wicke (left) and Mark Hedgeweth celebrate the win.
(photo credit: Jae S. Lee/The Tennessean)

TEAM OF THE DAY: Quinnipiac Braves

In a day without much in the way of upsets, Quinnipiac may have had the most impressive win. The five seed in the NEC tournament, Quinnipiac was forced to travel to Brooklyn to play Long Island (LI in BK? I don't get it either). The Braves were able to open up a 16 point second half lead, before the Blackbirds, who were led by freshman Julian Boyd, stormed back to tie the game at the buzzer (on a Boyd three pointer) and force OT. QU took control in overtime as they scored the first four points and never were really threatened. Quinnipiac, who was led by 22 points from James Feldeine, will face #1 seed Robert Morris on Sunday.


PLAYER OF THE DAY: Kenny Thomas, Radford

Thomas went off in Radford's first game in the Big South tourney, going for 35 points on 10-18 shooting in a 94-86 win over UNC-Asheville. He was 5-8 from deep and also had five boards and two steals. He had 24 of his 35 in the second half. It was more than just the numbers, however. He made a lot of big plays as well. With Radford up just 51-44 miday through the second half, Thomas went on an 8-0 by himself to open up a 15 point lead. When Asheville cut the lead to 78-76 with around five minutes left, it was Thomas who scored to end the run. Thomas came into the Big South Tournament on fire. For the season, he averaged 14.8 ppg, but in his last four games coming in, he had been scoring 22.5 per.

Thursday's Results

Atlantic Sun First Round:
- #3 Belmont 65, #6 Mercer 64
- #4 Lipscomb 82, #5 Campbell 52

Big South Semis:
- #2 VMI 78, #3 Liberty 58
- #1 Radford 94, #4 UNC Asheville 86

Missouri Valley First Round:
- #7 Wichita State 59, #10 Missouri State 46
- #9 Indiana State 62, #8 Drake 55

Northeast Conference Quarters:
- #1 Robert Morris 83, #8 St. Francis NY 70
- #5 Quinnipiac 86, #4 Long Island 78 OT
- #2 Mt. St. Mary's 72, #7 Wagner 62
- #3 Sacred Heart 76, #6 Central Connecticut State 64


Friday's Games

Atlantic Sun Semis (at Lipscomb's Allen Arena):
- 7:30 PM: #2 East Tennessee State vs. #3 Belmont
- 9:30 PM: #1 Jacksonville @ #4 Lipscomb

America East First Round (Albany):
- 7:00 PM: #8 Maine vs. #9 Hartford

Colonial Athletic First Round (Richmond):
- 12:00 PM: #8 Georgia Southern vs. #9 Delaware
- 2:30 PM: #5 Hofstra vs. #12 UNC Wilmington
- 6:00 PM: #7 James Madison vs. #10 William & Mary
- 8:30 PM: #6 Drexel vs. #11 Towson

Horizon Second Round (Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis):
- 6:00 PM: #4 Wright State vs. #5 UW-Milwaukee
- 8:00 PM: #3 Cleveland State vs. #7 Illinois-Chicago

MAAC First Round (Albany):
- 7:30 PM: #8 Loyola MD vs. #9 Canisius
- 9:30 PM: #7 Iona vs. #10 Marist

Missouri Valley Quarters (St. Louis):
- 1:00 PM: #1 Northern Iowa vs. #8 Indiana State
- 3:35 PM: #4 Bradley vs. #5 Southern Illinois
- 7:05 PM: #2 Creighton vs. #7 Wichita State
- 9:35 PM: #3 Illinois State vs. #6 Evansville

Ohio Valley Semis (Nashville):
- 7:00 PM: #1 Tennessee-Martin vs. #4 Morehead State
- 9:00 PM: #2 Austin Peay vs. #3 Murray State

Southern Tournament (Chattanooga):
- 2:00 PM: #4N Appalachian State vs. #5S Georgia Southern
- 4:30 PM: #3S College of Charleston vs. #6N UNC Greensboro
- 7:00 PM: #4S Western Carolina vs. #5N Elon
- 9:30 PM: #3N Samford vs. #6S Furman

West Coast Tournament (Vegas):
- 9:00 PM: #5 San Diego vs. #5 Loyola Marymount
- 11:30 PM: #6 Pepperdine vs. #7 San Francisco