Staff report
HICKORY ó Catawba earned its third straight trip to the championship game of the South Atlantic Conference tournament with a 79-68 win over top-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday night at Catawba Valley Community College.
The fourth-seeded Catawba Indians improve to 20-9 overall and will face either third-seeded Tusculum in the final.
Lenoir-Rhyne, who has lost three straight years to Catawba in the tournament semifinals, falls to 18-10.
The Indians trailed by two at the break, but shot 58 percent after halftime, outscored the Bears 46-33 and out-rebounded L-R by a 26-8 margin.
Dominick Reid, who led Catawba with 23 points, scored 14 of his points in the final half.
Lenoir-Rhyne scored the opening basket of the second half then Catawba reeled off six straight to take a lead on a jumper by Antonio Houston. When Isaac Rose canned a jumper at the 14:51 mark, giving Catawba a 48-46 edge, the Indians never trailed again.
Reid connected on a 3-pointer and Donald Rutherford added a jumper as Catawba pushed out to a 64-56 lead. A seven-point burst increased the margin to a dozen at 73-61 with 4:17 remaining and the Indians were not threatened down the stretch.
Catawba jumped out of the gates and led 17-8 in the opening eight minutes. Lenoir-Rhyne would rally behind Josh Rudder and Marcus Hodges. Rudder gave the Bears a 23-21 lead during a 17-4 spurt that had L-R on top 25-21. The Bears led 35-33 at the break despite shooting just 34percent in part thanks to a dozen Catawba turnovers.
Catawba pulled down 20 offensive rebounds in its dominating performance on the board, doubling up L-R 50-25 and outscoring the Bears 22-7 in second-chance points.
Houston added 19 points for the Indians, pulled down seven rebounds and dished out four assists. Rutherford posted a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Catawba is making its eighth trip to the SAC Tournament Championship game and is looking for back-to-back titles. Catawba has lost just once in the finals, coming in 2007 to Wingate.