Atlantic Sun conference tournaments begin tonight in Allen Arena

Atlantic Sun Conference  | 03/04/2009

The Atlantic Sun Conference 2009 men's and women's basketball championships kick off in Lipscomb University's Allen Arena tonight at 6 p.m. as the Lady Bisons of Lipscomb take on #2 seed Jacksonville followed by the first game of the men's tournament featuring #2 see ETSU versus #7 Stetson.

Tickets to all Championship games are available at AtlanticSun.org or at Ticketmaster.com. Wednesday night’s ETSU-Stetson game airs on CSS as does Thursday’s Lipscomb-Campbell contest, both at 8:30 p.m. CT. The network carries both semifinal games, beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. All of Wednesday’s, Thursday’s and Friday’s games can also be seen on ASun.TV.

 

Women's Tournament Preview

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Atlantic Sun Conference stages its 24th annual Women's Basketball Championship inside Lipscomb’s Allen Arena in Nashville this week. The 2009 tournament marks the second time the women’s championship will be contested in Tennessee, and both men's and women's championships have joined, representing the second time in the league’s history that both men's and women's seasons will culminate simultaneously. The 2008 champion, ETSU returns to defend its crown as the top-seed in this year’s tournament, but runner-up Jacksonville and host Lipscomb are just two of the seven teams hoping to unseat the Lady Bucs.

ETSU is trying to become the first team since Georgia State in 2003 to defend its title. The Panthers won three consecutive tournament championships from 2001-03. The Lady Bucs lost to only one team in the tournament field this season, falling twice to Mercer; including a 90-79 setback in the regular-season finale in Johnson City, Tenn. ETSU has won five-straight games in Allen Arena.

Stetson head coach Lynn Bria leads Stetson to the Atlantic Sun Championship for the first time, but she is no stranger to A-Sun postseason play. Bria spent three seasons (1996-99) as the head coach at former Atlantic Sun Conference member UCF. Bria’s 1999 squad claimed both the regular-season and tournament titles. Bria earned Coach of the Year honors from the league in that 1998-99 season, and in just three seasons ranked second on the Golden Knights’ all-time victories list.

The Jacksonville Dolphins amassed 13 conference victories, posting an above .500 conference mark for the third straight season and just the third time in the program’s 10 year history. Head coach Jill Dunn's squad is looking to become the third two seed in six seasons to hoist championship hardware in Nashville this weekend. Florida Atlantic was the most recent two seed to pull off that feat, claiming the title in 2006. This year’s tournament host Lipscomb started the trend, taking the championship in its first-ever A-Sun tournament appearance in 2004.

The Lady Bisons enter the tournament as the number-seven seed and have lost three of their last four contests. In addition to stiff competition, they will face adversarial history as well. FIU's 1998 tournament victory was the last time a host institution earned the A-Sun's automatic bid. Only four previous host institutions captured the championship trophy in the tournament’s 22 year history, and only two since the 1987 season. The Lady Bisons begin their quest against rival Jacksonville Wednesday, March 4 at 6:00 p.m.

The 24th annual Atlantic Sun Conference Women’s Basketball Championship will display the conference's finest talent, as five of the seven squads boast 2008-09 Player of the Week honorees. Mercer’s Second Team All-Conference junior LaToya Jackson topped the conference, winning three Player of the Week awards, and ranks in the top-10 in the league in scoring, assists, free throw percentage and 3-point field goal percentage. Jackson's Second Team All-Conference and Bear teammate Dominique Chism notched a weekly honor as well and ranks in the top-five in the league in scoring and field goal percentage. Player of the Year Siarre Evans led the top-seed Lady Bucs in both scoring and rebounding for the campaign, and is the only player in the league averaging a double-double. Defensive Player of the Year Latisha Belcher and First Team teammate TaRonda Wiles join Evans as weekly honorees, and rank in the top-10 in the league in scoring. Second-seed Jacksonville (Courtney Jackson), Belmont (Amber Rockwell) and Stetson (Sharensha Smith) earned weekly honors over the course of the season as well.

 

Men's Tournament Preview

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - After a frantic final few weeks of the regular-season marathon, the four-day sprint that is the General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Championship tips off at 8:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday with second-seeded ETSU squaring off with Stetson, the seventh seed, in first-round action from Lipscomb’s Allen Arena.

ETSU started conference play 9-1, but suffered through an eight-game funk in which the Buccaneers lost five of those contests. They recovered with wins against Kennesaw State and Mercer by a combined 57 points to move up to the second seed and in the process, reached 20 wins for the third time in six years under head coach Murry Bartow. Throughout the year, he relied on two seniors, Courtney Pigram and Kevin Tiggs along with junior Mike Smith. Tiggs enters the week leading the league in scoring at 20.7 points per game. Pigram, who needs 28 points to become just the second A-Sun player to score 2000 in a career, is third at 17.6 points per game with Smith ninth at better than 15 points per game. No other A-Sun team placed multiple players in the top 10 in scoring, let alone three. Should they all remain in the top 10, the trio would become just the third set of teammates to finish in the top-10 in scoring in A-Sun in the last 10 years joining Mercer’s 2004-05 team that featured Will Emerson, third at 15.6 PPG; Jacob Skogen, seventh, 14.7 PPG; and James Odoms, ninth, 14.3 PPG.

The Hatter entered 2008-09 returning all five starters from a team that earned the third seed a year ago with an 11-5 record. The Hatters won consecutive conference games on four different occasions this year, but could never win three straight. Garfield Blair has led the Hatters throughout, pacing the team in scoring, rebounding, field-goal percentage and 3-point field-goal percentage. Where Blair did not lead, A.J. Smith filled the void, leading the squad in assists, free-throw percentage and in minutes played. They face an uphill climb as no seventh seed has won the A-Sun Championship. In their favor, the Hatters own a victory against Bucs, winning on the road, 64-63, last month. Stetson owns the stingiest defense in the conference, limiting its opponents to a conference-leading 67.9 points per game. The Hatters permitted the Buccaneers to connect on just 5-for-22 (22.7 percent) from beyond the 3-point arc.

The first round concludes on Thursday with a pair of games. In a 2:30 p.m. CT tilt, Belmont faces Mercer. Having already made A-Sun Championship history with three straight titles, the Bruins will go for the unprecedented fourth-in-a-row this week. Three of the Bruins five seniors, Andy Wicke, Matthew Dotson and Henry Harris have been on the squad for all three titles. Only five other schools in the country have its conference’s last three automatic bids (Kansas, Big 12; Memphis, Conference USA; Davidson, Southern; Winthrop, Big South, Oral Roberts, Summit). Belmont owns a 9-0 record in Championship play against the current members of the conference.

Mercer made the lone coaching change for 2008, hiring Bob Hoffman to replace Mark Slonaker. He opened with a bang, defeating Auburn and Alabama in November and the Bears briefly held the top spot in the RPI, according to CollegeRPI.com. The strong play continued throughout the season as they improved their RPI from last season by more than 140 places in finishing the regular season at 17-14, upping their win total by six from last year. One constant from the two seasons, James Florence, averaged a league-best 23.2 points in conference games, the third straight year in which he has averaged more than 20 points against A-Sun opposition. Only one other player in the nation, Davidson’s Stephen Curry can also boast that claim. A new addition from last year, Daniel Emerson, provided consistency in the low post, averaging a double-double each game. He has picked up a league-best 15 double-doubles.

At 8:30 p.m. CT, the A-Sun’s two hottest teams, Lipscomb and Campbell wrap up the first round. On February 2nd, a loss at FGCU left the Bisons with a 4-8 record in the league and in line for the seventh seed. Since that loss, the Bisons have turned in a complete turnaround, winning eight consecutive games to finish at 12-8 and with the fourth seed. During the streak, the Bisons have won by an average of 16.0 points per game, averaging 82.5 and holding their opponents to 66.5. They have shot the ball incredibly well throughout, hitting on 51.7 percent from the floor and 47.3 percent beyond the 3-point arc. They have shared the ball well, collecting close to 20 assists each night. Michael Lusk and Brian Wright have not missed much from the outside, combining to shoot 57.1 percent from the 3-point territory (28-for-49). If Lipscomb can extend its win streak to 11 and win its first A-Sun Championship, it would end a dubious skid for schools hosting the event. Georgia State, in 2001, is the last school to win the title on its home court.

With one of the youngest teams in all of Division I, Campbell registered its most regular-season wins (14) since 1996, 15. In addition, Campbell tied a school record for most A-Sun regular season victories, matching the 1996 club, and recorded the program’s first winning record in league play since 2000. Lorne Merthie, one of the Camels’ five freshmen has led a closing four-game surge, leading the team in scoring in all four games, averaging 17.8 points in a span that included wins against Jacksonville and ETSU. He became the first Camel in the last three years, other than Jonathan Rodriguez, to lead the team in scoring four straight games.

Sitting back and watching all this action, Jacksonville will not take to the floor until Friday night by virtue of winning the regular-season title and earning a bye into the semifinals. The Dolphins survived a furious Belmont second-half rally in the final conference game of the entire season to capture their first regular-season conference title in program history. Jacksonville awaits the winner of the Lipscomb-Campbell first-round contest. As an addition perk to the regular-season title, the Dolphins guaranteed themselves their first postseason appearance since making the NIT at the end of the 1986-87 season. All conference champions secure a spot in the NIT, should they not claim a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Dolphins last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 1986.

 

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The Atlantic Sun Conference is an 11-member league committed to Building Winners for Life. The A-Sun stands for achievement with integrity in both the academic and athletic arenas, with a focus on the balance between the two for our student-athletes. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun boasts six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun includes a blend of the most prestigious and dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.