Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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  • Just out of reach... Bluefield College’s Marcus Jackson tries to outwit a Covenant defender during their game Thursday at the Bluefield College Dome. Staff photo by Jon Bolt

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March 12, 2010

Rams roll on in NCCAA regional

Wire report

BLUEFIELD, Va. — Bluefield College scored a big win, 96-74, over Covenant College of Georgia in the opening round of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Mid-East Regional Tournament Thursday in the Dome Gymnasium.

It was a game of equal runs in the first half with BC building modest leads of 14-8, 25-19 and 31-24, only to see Covenant battle back to tie the contest on three separate occasions, 19-19, 25-25 and 31-31.

That is until three minutes to go in the opening frame when the Rams played their best basketball of the half, going on an 8-0 run sparked by junior Rob Wright, who finished the first 20 minutes with 11 points to lead BC to a 39-31 advantage at the intermission.

The Rams quickly grew the lead to 17 points, 63-46, in the first seven minutes of the second half behind good post play on both ends by sophomore Ted O’Boute, who finished the game with 17 points, five rebounds, and three blocks.

“Ted worked hard all week in practice,” said BC head coach Richard Morgan, “so we felt like we’d give him the start and more time to see what he could do. His hard work paid off, because he gave us some good minutes in tonight’s game.”

Covenant battled back to get within eight points, 65-57, at the mid-way point of the second half, but it would be as close as the Scots would get as the Rams would finish the game with a 31-17 run of their own.

BC’s Wright finished the night with a game-high 21 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Borgia M’Bala added 16 points. Freshman Carlton Shumake chipped in 14, and sophomore Alvin Board came off the bench to contribute 12. Appalachian Athletic Conference Player of the Year Omar Reed had eight points and 13 rebounds.

With the win, Bluefield advances to play King College in the semi-finals of the NCCAA Mid-East Regional Tournament on Friday at 6 p.m. in Bristol, Tennessee.

“It’s going to be a tough environment,” said Coach Morgan about the trip to play King in the semi-finals. “We’ve been there before (lost at King, 80-56, on November 10, 2009), but we’re a different team. They like to speed it up, and we can’t let them do that to us. We have to play better defense than we did tonight, if we’re going to come out of there with a win.”

The winner of the King-BC match-up will play the winner of the Mid-Continent University-Tennessee Temple University contest for the NCCAA Mid-East Regional crown, Saturday, March 13, and a bid to play in the NCCAA National Tournament, March 18-20 at Oakland City University in Indiana.

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