After easily dispatching their opening round opponents, both Saint Vincent men's and women's basketball teams will continue their seasons in the semifinal round of the 2011 Presidents' Athletic Conference championship tournament.
The Bearcat men, 19-7 overall, will host Bethany College tonight at 7pm, while the 23-3 Lady Bearcats, ranked 19th nationally, travel to Crestview Hills, KY and Thomas More College for a neutral site contest with Waynesburg University on Friday evening at 5pm. Both Saint Vincent teams are seeded second in their respective tourneys.
Saint Vincent advanced to the men's semifinals after using a strong second half to ease past Grove City 72-54 on Tuesday night in the Carey Center. Leading just 29-25 at the half, the Bearcats opened the second from on a 15-4 run to effectively put the game away.
The Bearcats' opponent, Bethany, throttled Westminster 90-58 in the opening round. The Bison, who had four players score at least 12 points, ended the first half on a 32-2 run, and shot 61 percent for the game.
Bethany and St. Vincent split the regular season series, with both teams winning on the road. On Jan. 8
th, a pair of
Dennis Bassich free throws in the closing seconds gave the Bearcats a 71-70 victory, before Bethany turned the tables with a 65-57 win on Feb. 8
th. Bethany led 35-18 at the halftime, before the Bearcats staged a frantic second half comeback that came up just short.
The winner of tonight's tilt will advance to the PAC championship, against the Thiel/Thomas More winner, and Bearcat head coach DP Harris has tremendous respect for each of the teams left.
“I think any of the four teams left have an opportunity to go to the NCAA tournament,” he said. “All are quality teams. I think Bethany has tremendous athletes, and I believe whoever wins our game has a very, very good chance of winning the PAC tournament and going onto the NCAA tourney.”
While the postseason is certainly nothing new to the Bearcat men's basketball program, this season is the first in which the Bearcats are fully eligible to compete for the PAC title after completing a four-year provisional membership. Harris is thrilled that his team has a chance to leave its mark in its first PAC postseason, and he has seen tremendous strides in the quality of basketball in the PAC since Saint Vincent joined in 2006.
“I think that since us and Geneva have entered the PAC,” Harris said, “the conference has become much more competitive, and I'm not just talking about those two teams. All the schools have done a great job of improving the basketball in this league. We're excited to host another game in this tournament. It's been a few years since we hosted playoff games, but it's familiar territory for us, and we're looking forward to getting back to the tradition of hosting playoff basketball.”
The Saint Vincent women, ranked 19th nationally, earned a trip to the semifinals with a 64-46 victory over Chatham on Tuesday night. The Bearcats led for the entire 40 minutes, forcing 25 turnovers and allowing the Cougars to shoot just 35 percent from the floor.
“We flowed a little better offensively than we had recently,” said interim head coach
Jimmy Petruska. “Our press was effective, and we got a lot of steals and points off the press. It was a good win, a good confidence booster, and I think it got us ready for the semis.”
Though defeating Waynesburg twice during the regular season, the Bearcats were put to the test, winning the two games by a combined 15 points, with victories of 72-64 on Jan. 12 and 64-57 on Feb. 12. Waynesburg's Elisha Jones combined for 37 points in the two games and Brittany Spencer 29, and Petruska knows his team may have its hands full with the Yellow Jackets.
“We are two very similar teams,” he said. “Elisha Jones is the one to stop, and she has a nice cast around her. Spencer is a heck of an athlete, and Hannah Hunter is one of the top point guards in the conference. She's feisty, smart, very fast, with a nice shot, plus they have kids that hit the boards. They might not press as much as us, but in the playoffs, you can expect to see anything. With such a similar style, I think we match up well with them.”
Unlike the men's tourney, in which the higher seeds host each game, the semifinals and the finals of the women's tournament are played at the top remaining seed, which happens to be 26-0 Thomas More, ranked first nationally This marks the second trip in as many weekends for the Bearcats to travel to the suburban Cincinnati school, after falling 73-48 to the Saints in the regular season finale last Saturday, but Petruska is just eager for his team to be able to continue its season, regardless of where he has to play.
“With every win, you're keeping your season alive,” the coach said, “and you're guaranteed at least one more game. We want to continue that. We want to guarantee another game Saturday by doing everything we can against Waynesburg.”
In the men's tourney, should the Bearcats win, they will face the winner of the second semifinal game between top-seeded Thiel and fifth-seeded Thomas More on Saturday. Should Thomas More also win, Saint Vincent will get to play for the PAC championship on its own floor.
The winner of the Lady Bearcats' game will take on the winner of Thomas More and Grove City on Saturday evening in Kentucky.
