Trevin Parks received the Food Lion MVP award for his game-high 26 points, four assist performance in a 67-60 victory over Chowan
CIAA Opening Round Box vs. Chowan
CHARLOTTE, NC - The Johnson C. Smith University men's basketball team topped Chowan University 67-60 in the opening round of the 2011 CIAA Men's Basketball Tournament on Wednesday evening inside Time Warner Cable Arena. JCSU improves to 16-10 overall and advances to a Thursday quarterfinal contest against Bowie State University.
Sophomore guard and reigning CIAA Player of the Year
Trevin Parks (Hickory, NC) had a productive debut in the tournament and in the TWC Arena.
Behind his 26 points, Johnson C. Smith erased an 11-point first-half deficit in less than 10 minutes and held a 30-28 lead at the half.
The Golden Bulls are playing as the No. 4 seed from the Southern Division; while the Hawks were representing as the fifth seed from the North with a finish of 5-22 on the season at 5-22. The performance from Parks should come as no surprise. He finished the season as the league's leading scorer, averaging 22.8 points per game, also 10th in NCAA Division II.
The victory also avenges last year's surprising first-round exit to Chowan in last year's tournament. It stunned last year's JCSU players who felt they should not have lost in the first round of a tournament based in their city.
“Last year it was really disappointing and a real bitter taste in our mouths,” said redshirt sophomore forward
Calvin Smith (Auburn, AL), who claimed his first-ever double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. “I didn't want to come out and lose to Chowan in the first round. Being 10 minutes away and going back to school, the fans looked at us like this is our town. They want you to win.”
It was anything but easy. With the game knotted at 13-13 following a jumper by Parks, Chowan went on an 11-0 run to go up, 23-12, midway through the half. Overall, the Golden Bulls were held scoreless for 4 minutes, 59 seconds.
“I talked to them about that before the game that everybody has first-game jitters — that it's always the toughest game to get over,” JCSU head coach Stephen Joyner, Sr., said. “Once it's over you feel the tournament can get started. We were a lot more emotionally comfortable in the second half with a greater understanding of what it would take to win this basketball game.”
The Hawks' run was led by senior guard Charles Rhodes, who had 11 first-half points and finished with a team-high and nine rebounds.
But Johnson C. Smith answered methodically to close the period. When sophomore center
Delonta Boyd (District Heights, MD) with 1-of-2 from free throw line, JCSU gained a 29-28 lead with 1:02 left. The lead change marked JCSU's first advantage since leading 8-5 2:10 into the game.
The Golden Bulls led, 30-28 at the intermission with Parks providing a team-high nine points. The Golden Bulls would not trail again.
CU turnovers allowed JCSU to get back in the game, committing 11 to just five for the Golden Bulls. The Hawks were able to overcome their ball-security woes by notching 12 offensive rebounds, which allowed for 14 second half points. By contrast, JCSU had zero.
“We came out with a lot of energy. I thought we played harder than them the first 12 minutes and a couple of things didn't go our way,” said Chowan's first-year head coach Dan DeRose.” We lost our edge and panic set in. We had some confusion with some things. We needed to fight back and get back out of it. We battled, we won the rebounding part of the game, and we really attacked the offensive glass, which was an advantage to us. But we got careless with the basketball, and that was our downfall.
After trailing 34-32 early in the second period, an 18-7 JCSU run transformed the game from a close contest to a 52-39 ball game with 11:05 to go.
After trailing by 14 with 6:28 to go, the Hawks launched a run that brought about a climactic finish. Rhodes drilled a 3-pointer with 1:29 left despite being fouled by Parks, who closed to within 52-48, the closest they'd been since early in the second half.
JCSU just could not deliver the dagger coming up empty on their possession. With 46 seconds left, Deandre Tyree went to the line with the chance to get the Hawks as close as two, but he missed them both.
Rhodes notched a put-back to get CU within 63-60 with 19.3 seconds left, but appropriately Parks made both free-throws to seal the game.
“Down the stretch we can't handle the ball we did,” Parks said. “I take the blame for that being the point guard. It turned into points on the Chowan end. We have to play fast but think slow down the stretch.”
Johnson C. Smith and Bowie State split last year's series, and Joyner said his team's battle with one of the conference's top teams should be a good one.
“Tomorrow the team that's going to win is going to execute on both sides of the court,” he said.
Johnson C. Smith and Bowie State University (the Northern Division's No. 1 seed) will tip-off at 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 3rd inside the Time Warner Cable Arena.
