2008 Woodie Awards
Tigers advance to OVC Championship
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By LaVonte Young
Senior Sports Reporter
Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: Sports
The TSU Tigers moved one step closer to achieving their goal of an Ohio Valley Conference title as the sixth-seeded Tigers upset number two Murray State Racers on Friday March 7.
This will be the Tigers' first appearance in the OVC title game since the 1998-1999 season. The Big Blue has not won the OVC since the 1993-94 seasons.
"I'm really happy for these young men and this program," said head coach Cy Alexander.
Going into the half the Tigers had a 35-28 lead, but the Racers would storm out the locker room and outscore the Tigers 18-10. The Racers would take the lead 54-53 with a Ray George three pointers with 9:18 left in the second half.
"Ray is the TSU personal assassin," Alexander said. "You look at his stats he doesn't make threes against anybody but us. He not that great of a three point shooter but when he see TSU he thinks he is,… whoever the best three point shooter in America is."
The Racers built a three point lead, 56-53, but the Tigers would go on a 9-0 run which was capped of by a Bruce Price lay up to give the Tigers a 62-56 lead.
"I thought we executed against their pressure," Alexander said. "We showed a lot poise and confidence."
The Racers would cut the Tigers lead down to four 64-60 but the 7-foot junior center James Craft hit a baseline jumper to push the lead to six. Craft was huge for the Tigers in the second half scoring six timely points.
"Coach off gut feeling," Alexander said. "This morning in shoot around I watched Craft and he wasn't missing and my gut told me to go with him as the first big off the bench and he was still not missing tonight."
Down the stretch for the Tigers it became Bruce Price show. The Big Blue put the ball in Price's hands and he delivered. In the last four minutes of action the Tigers scored 13 points and only committed one turnover.
"Being down by three points with less than 10 minutes to go we never lost our poise," Alexander said. "We ran our stuff through Bruce Price gave him several options on each play and for the most part be took the best option."
"We thought if we played forty minutes we thought we could beat him," said junior guard Bruce Price.
The Tigers in the second half went 20-27 from the free throw line. In the last few weeks of the season the Tigers struggled in that area in close games but they say the Feb. 14 game against Murray State helped change that.
"What turned around season was a home game against Murray State we were losing by 13 points with 6:25 left but we went on a 19-1 run," Alexander said. "Our guys from that point on have believed in each other. The next night we beat Austin Peay then we lost a 22 point lead to Morehead State we blew it in the second half because we didn't play good enough defense... Then we went to Eastern Kentucky and beat them by 18."
The Tigers were led by Price with 20 points, 8 assist, 4 rebounds and 2 turnovers. Gerald Robinson, Jr. chipped in with 12 points and James Craft had a career night with 10 points and four rebounds.
The Tigers will face the Austin Peay Governors in the finals Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.
Senior Sports Reporter
Lavonte Young
and
Managing Editor
Brian C. Browely
Lavonte Young
This will be the Tigers' first appearance in the OVC title game since the 1998-1999 season. The Big Blue has not won the OVC since the 1993-94 seasons.
"I'm really happy for these young men and this program," said head coach Cy Alexander.
Going into the half the Tigers had a 35-28 lead, but the Racers would storm out the locker room and outscore the Tigers 18-10. The Racers would take the lead 54-53 with a Ray George three pointers with 9:18 left in the second half.
"Ray is the TSU personal assassin," Alexander said. "You look at his stats he doesn't make threes against anybody but us. He not that great of a three point shooter but when he see TSU he thinks he is,… whoever the best three point shooter in America is."
The Racers built a three point lead, 56-53, but the Tigers would go on a 9-0 run which was capped of by a Bruce Price lay up to give the Tigers a 62-56 lead.
"I thought we executed against their pressure," Alexander said. "We showed a lot poise and confidence."
The Racers would cut the Tigers lead down to four 64-60 but the 7-foot junior center James Craft hit a baseline jumper to push the lead to six. Craft was huge for the Tigers in the second half scoring six timely points.
"Coach off gut feeling," Alexander said. "This morning in shoot around I watched Craft and he wasn't missing and my gut told me to go with him as the first big off the bench and he was still not missing tonight."
Down the stretch for the Tigers it became Bruce Price show. The Big Blue put the ball in Price's hands and he delivered. In the last four minutes of action the Tigers scored 13 points and only committed one turnover.
"Being down by three points with less than 10 minutes to go we never lost our poise," Alexander said. "We ran our stuff through Bruce Price gave him several options on each play and for the most part be took the best option."
"We thought if we played forty minutes we thought we could beat him," said junior guard Bruce Price.
The Tigers in the second half went 20-27 from the free throw line. In the last few weeks of the season the Tigers struggled in that area in close games but they say the Feb. 14 game against Murray State helped change that.
"What turned around season was a home game against Murray State we were losing by 13 points with 6:25 left but we went on a 19-1 run," Alexander said. "Our guys from that point on have believed in each other. The next night we beat Austin Peay then we lost a 22 point lead to Morehead State we blew it in the second half because we didn't play good enough defense... Then we went to Eastern Kentucky and beat them by 18."
The Tigers were led by Price with 20 points, 8 assist, 4 rebounds and 2 turnovers. Gerald Robinson, Jr. chipped in with 12 points and James Craft had a career night with 10 points and four rebounds.
The Tigers will face the Austin Peay Governors in the finals Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.
Game Recap
Senior Sports Reporter
Lavonte Young
and
Managing Editor
Brian C. Browely
Game Highlights
Lavonte Young
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
J. Young
posted 3/20/08 @ 1:25 PM CST
Go Big Blue!!!! The story was beautifully written and congrats to the Tigers!!!!
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