Box Score
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Averett advanced to its fourth straight USA South Conference Tournament championship game with an 83-60 victory over Methodist University in one of Friday's semifinals at the Freeman Center. The second-seeded Cougars pulled away from the sixth-seeded Monarchs in the second half.
Averett (19-8) will face No. 1 Christopher Newport in Saturday's championship game, which is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. CNU defeated No. 4 Shenandoah 75-64 in Friday's other semifinal.
Averett shot 6-for-8 from beyond the arc early in the first half, which helped the Cougars build as much as a 19-point lead with just over five minutes left in the half. The Cougars, however, went cold and hit only one of their next six 3-pointers the rest of the half as Methodist (10-17) chipped the deficit down to 45-36 by halftime.
"We got the lead, and I thought that was kind of the biggest key all day," Averett coach Jimmy Allen said. "We got Methodist back on their heels and we got control of the basketball game."
The Cougars slowly rebuilt their lead at the start of the second half. Freshman Kenny Hart hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to put Averett ahead 59-44. The Cougars extended that lead to 64-44 on an open layup by senior Ryan Frazier and an uncontested 3-pointer by senior Justin Parker.
"We came out with a lot of energy," said Frazier, who finished with a team-high 17 points. "That helped us because we didn't execute like we should have. Our energy definitely carried us through some of those times we weren't executing correctly and helped us pull through."
Hart, who was 4-for-6 from 3-point range, added 15 points and seven rebounds.
A.B. Lehmann was the only Monarch to score in double figures. He finished with 17 points.
The Cougars swept Methodist in the regular season and, with Saturday's victory, take a 35-34 lead in the all-time series.
Averett improved its USA South Conference Tournament record to 10-2 under Allen, who is in his fifth season at the helm of the Cougars. With a win in Saturday's final, Averett would earn its third straight tournament championship and NCAA Tournament berth.
"We'll try to do the same exact thing we've done the last two years," Allen said. "We're going to try to prepare the same way and put ourselves in the best position to win."
Added Frazier: "Having a lot of experience going into tomorrow's game will definitely help us."
