The Final Four is set and Matt Page was the only contestant to correctly guess two of the four teams. But Page can't win. Due to his struggles in earlier rounds he finishes the contest with 70 points.
In fact, there are only three contests left that can win this bad boy of a contest. The current leader, Nathaniel Broadway can hang on to the lead, while David Dennis and Tyler Cox can still jump into the winner's circle if things go their way on Saturday.
Broadway, who picked Florida to go to the Final Four and lose, will only win if both the Gators and UCLA fall in Saturday's seminfinals.
Dennis will claim the victory if UCLA wins, regardless of the Florida/George Mason matchup. Cox will seal the deal only if Florida wins and UCLA loses.
No one will get the huge 20-point prize for the national champion, as no one picked any of the actual Final Four teams to win it. .
If you have any questions or need to submit contact information just e-mail us at admin@getoffus.com.
The current rankings can be found on this page.
Scoring information and a better explanation of the rules is available in the March 15 Echo.
Men's final set
March 05, 2006
TUPELO, Miss. — The No. 1 team from the East will face the No. 1 teeam from the West in today's GSC Championship game at the BancorpSouth Center.
Montevallo, from the East, got to the championship after handily dispossing of Arkansas-Monticello, 80-71.
The Falcons had four players score in double figures. They were led by James Hall's 21 points. Marcus Kennedy had 20 points.
In Saturday's first men's semifinal the nation's No. 1 team Delta State survived a tough game from Alabama-Huntsville, 74-72.
Jasper Johnson for the second day in a row hit a big shot to put the Statesmen back in the lead for good. He finished with 19 points. Travis DeGroot led the Statesmen with 24 points.
Today's men's final will tip-off at about 2:30 p.m.
Henderson needs overtime to get past West Georgia
March 04, 2006
TUPELO, Miss. — The Henderson State Lady Reddies overcame what their coach, Jeff Caldwell, called a lackadaisical effort in the first half to force overtime and eventually knock off West Georgia in the semifinal round of the Gulf South Conference Women's Basketball Tournament.
The West Division No. 1 seed Lady Reddies (25-3) trailed 33-28 at halftime. That was after allowing a six-minute 15-0 run by the Braves (19-9) in the middle of the first half.
At that point the Braves, the East Division's No. 2 seed, led 26-15. Henderson finally re-took the lead with 14:20 left in the game when Lauren Hill hit her fourth 3-pointer of the ball game. Hill finished 4-of-4 from beyond the arc and scored 16 points off the bench.
The game was back and forth for the remainder of regulation. With 26.7 seconds left to go and West Georgia leading 61-60, HSU's Shondra Bush missed a pair of free throws. Then UWG's Natasha Liggins made just one of her two free throws on the Braves next possession to give them a 62-60 lead.
The Braves then fouled Keisha Blackwell with 13.9 seconds left. She nailed both free throws. UWG was unorganized and couldn't get a final shot, thus overtime.
In the OT HSU's Rayna Hare took over and scored the first seven Lady Reddie points to push them out to a 69-64 lead.
The score stayed 69-64 for quite some time. But with 29.7 seconds left to go HSU inbounded the ball and Liggins promptly stole it and hit a 15-foot jumper while drawing the foul. She made the free throw to cut the Henderson lead to 69-67.
Hill hit a pair of free throw to extend the Lady Reddie lead to four. On the Braves next possession Collea Carter snagged her own rebound, went back up with a shot, made it and was fouled. She hit the free throw to cut the lead to one, 71-70.
Hill made two more free throws with 5.1 seconds to go to make it 73-70. The Braves had enough time to advance the ball down the court, but execution was sloppy and time ran out.
The Braves were just 2-of-10 from the field in the overtime period after shooting more than 40 percent in regulation.
Hare was struggling in the first half, but finished the game with 19 points and 7 rebounds to lead the Lady Reddies. Blackwell finished with 14 points. Ashley Perry had 10 boards for HSU.
West Georgia was led by the GSC's leading scorer, Tai Ellis, who finished wit h21 points. Liggins had 19 and Doville Gulbinaite finished with 13 points and 9 boards for the Braves.
The Braves likely earned themselves a spot in the NCAA Regionals with their win in the first round over Central Arkansas. The selections for that tournament will be announced Sunday, until then the Braves will have to sit and wait.
Henderson, on the other hand, will have its hands full tomorrow afternoon when the Lady Reddies will battle the West's No. 2 seed, Delta State, in the GSC championship game at noon.
DSU women advance to final after knocking off West Georgia
TUPELO, Miss. — West Florida just needed one more run.
They didn't get it. The Lady Argos (22-6) were able to force overtime with Delta State in Saturday's GSC semifinal, but the Lady Statesmen (27-2) proved to be to much in the extra period and pulled away to a 63-54 win to advance to Sunday's championship game.
With 30 seconds remaining in regulation UWF's Melissa Nafzger stepped up and drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the circle to tie the game at 50.
In overtime built a five-point advantage before the Lady Argos were able to score. UWF scored just one more time in the period and shot 20 percent. DSU scored all but two of its points from the free-throw line in overtime, going 11-of-16 from the line.
Delta State was led by Lawanda Stewart's 13 points. Wyconda Thomas had 12 and Courtney Wilson finished with 10. The Lady Argos were led by Lyndsay Munro, who came off the bench to score 16 points. Nafzger finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out.
The Lady Statesmen play the winner of the Henderson State-West Georgia game tomorrow at noon.
Ivey hits last-second layup to knock off UCA
March 03, 2006
by Kai Caddy
TUPELO, Miss. — According to Alabama-Huntsville coach Lennie Acuff, the basketball gods shone down on the Chargers (22-6) on Friday afternoon as David Ivey drove down the lane unadulterated in the final seconds of the quarterfinals of the GSC Tournament to give UAH a 48-46 win over UCA.
With the game tied at 46 after a pair of Darryl Jones free throws with 35.7 seconds left UAH set up for one last shot. After a high ball-screen was set, Ivey rolled off of the screen, grabbed a pass and drove down the right side of the lane with no Bear help in sight. Ivey scooped in the game winner with just 2.8 seconds remaining.
"This was my first game winner," Ivey said. "I was telling my teammates that I had one maybe in JV basketball. I came off the ball screen and saw that they weren't helping me and it was just bee and the big man down low. I knew it was in as soon as it left my hand."
Ivey led the Chargers with 14 points. His unique scoop shot is reminiscent of old school basketball, something Acuff likes about his player.
"David's a throwback," Acuff said. "He came to us as a walk-on four years ago and he's one of the greatest stories we've ever had. He does a really good job for us."
UCA (18-10) coach Rand Chappell said he believed his defense could make the stop.
"We had held them to 46 points, we felt that we could get one last stop," Chappell said. "We had confidence in our defense."
Bears point guard Joey Cortez, who had a shot to win the game himself said Ivey made a good play.
"The kid made a pretty big play," Cortez said. "We knew they were going to set some sort of high screen and the kid made a big-time play. We probably should've done a little better job of help defense."
After the Ivey layup, Cortez took the ball in and got a step inside halfcourt when he let one fly. The ball was on target, but just short of the rim.
"I thought it was good," Cortez said. "I got off a pretty good look it was just a little short."
When Cortez let go of his shot the Chargers had flashbacks of their last home game of the year when North Alabama won the game in a similar fashion.
"When the shot went up I thought, OK, then saw that it was out," Acuff said. "I'm a man of faith and I think the basketball god might have shined down on that one and I was praying they'd block that one from going in."
The Bears trailed much of the second half after taking a 28-25 lead into the locker room at halftime. UCA shot just 4-of-20 in the second half, but made 9-of-12 free throws and that's what kept the Bears in the game.
With 2:21 and UAH looking to increase its lead to six, Stephin Booth blocked a shot and the Bears took off down the floor, Fred Campbell was fouled and hit a pair of free throws to cut the UAH lead to 44-42. On the Chargers next possession Daniel Easterly was called for traveling. UAH sent Campbell to the line for another pair of free throws. He hit them both and the game was tied at 44 with 1:23 remaining.
Easterly made up for his travel and hit a turnaround jumper in the lane on UAH's next possession to give the Chargers a 46-44 lead. On UCA's next possession Jones drove cross court and let go a sweeping hook shot in the lane. The shot missed but he was fouled and converted the two free throws that tied the game at 46.
Jones was the leading scorer for the Bears, the only in double figures, with 16 points. Campbell had 9 points and LeMar Phillips had 8.
The Bears ran out to a 7-2 lead to begin the game, but then cooled off. UAH took the lead with 11:59 left in the first half when Easterly hit a jumper in the lane to make it 10-9.
Jones tied the game at 23 with a pair of free throws at the three-minute mark in the first. That was the start of a 6-2 run for the Bears at the end of the half.
UCA shot 39.3 percent in the first. UAH shot 9-of-21 in both halves, good for 42.9 percent in the game.
The Bears dominated the rebounding 39-26, with UAH only grabbing three offensive boards.
"We don't run down trains and leap over tall buildings," Acuff said in response to his team's lack of offensive boards. "If you look at the conference stats we're so far behind everybody else in offensive rebounding they don't even know we're in the league."
Next up for UAH is a semifinal meeting with the No. 1 team in the nation tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m.
"That's the best team to come out of this state," Acuff said. "I don't think Ole Miss or Mississippi State wants 'em. That is the No. 1 team in the country. But we'll be here tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m."
No. 1 DSU survives scare from Blazers
TUPELO, Miss. — Delta State's No. 1 national ranking was in jeopardy for much of the second half of Friday's quarterfinal in the GSC Tournament until Jasper Johnson hit a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws to give the Statesmen a 74-70 win.
The Blazers (17-11) held on to a 70-69 lead with 3:25 left to go. With 35 seconds left the Blazers still held the one-point advantage and were looking to run some clock down, but they ran too much of it down and were called for a shot clock violation, the 22nd VSU turnover of the day.
After a DSU (27-1) timeout the Statesmen were moving the ball and eventually found Johnson with 18.3 seconds left wide open on the left wing for the 3 that gave Delta its first lead since the 8:18 mark, 72-70.
The Blazers were unable to get a good shot off on their next possession and the Statesmen pulled down the rebound. Johnson was fouled and hit his free throws to arrive at the final score.
Johnson finished with 27 points on 7-of-16 shooting. He was 10-of-10 from the free-throw line.
Valdosta trailed 40-36 in the second half after leading most of the way. The Blazers regained the lead when Jon Rogers hit a turnaround jumper with 8:33 to go to make it 57-56. With 6:21 to go the Blazers pushed their lead to three when Mike Crain found Rogers for an alley oop. But Rogers received a technical foul after the dunk and Delta was still within one.
The Blazers managed to stay in front until the Johnson 3-pointer despite turnovers and poor shooting down the stretch. VSU shot 50 percent for the game, but the went 0-for-3 in the last three minutes.
Travis DeGroot had 10 points and 9 assists for the Statesmen and Victor Brown came off the bench to score 10 for Delta.
The Blazers five starters all scored in double figures, while the bench combined for one missed shot and no points. Rogers led with 17 points and 7 rebounds. J.T. Thomas and Crain each had 15 points, Jon Banks finished with 13 and Herman Burge had 10.
The Statesmen advance to tomorrow's semifinals against the winner of the Alabama-Hunstville, UCA game at 2:45 p.m.
Women's one seeds advance to semis
March 02, 2006
TUPELO, Miss. — The East Division's No. 1 seed West Florida never trailed in its 82-78 win over West Alabama in quarterfinal action at the GSC Tournament on Thursday.
The Lady Tigers (13-16), the East's No. 5 seed, wouldn't go away without making a little noise though. UWA actually won the second half 47-43, but just weren't ever able to make the big run it needed.
With 2:06 left in the game Veronica Lee cut the UWF (22-5) lead to four, 73-69. UWA cut the lead to four on four other occasions before Wennica Foster hit a layup with three seconds left to cut the to three, 81-78. The Lady Tigers weren't able to foul right away, and Melissa Nafzger hit one of two free throws to put the Lady Argos back up four and time ran out on UWA.
Despite the loss, UWA had five players in double-figure scoring. Lee had 15 points, Emily Nalls had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Wennica Foster had 13, Brandi Humphrey had 12 and Jamie Walker had 10 points and 7 rebounds.
The Lady Argos had four players in double figures, including Nafzger and Michelle Gibson who both finished with 21 points. Nafzger grabbed a game-high 12 boards. Erin Vierling had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Heather George finished with 10 points.
West Florida advances to the semifinals where they will take on Delta State at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Henderson St. 59, Valdosta St. 50
The Henderson State Lady Reddies put their No. 1 seed on the line Thursday night against a Valdosta State team looking for a little revenge.
The Lady Reddies (25-3) were able to stave off the Lady Blazers (18-10) thanks to a huge first half 59-50.
Henderson shot 56 percent in the first half and had 11 assists and 6 steals. The Lady Reddies led 38-25 after the first. HSU had four players score in double digits.
Shondra Bush led the Lady Reddies with 12 points. Rayna Hare, Ashley Perry and Angelique Baulding each had 11 for the Lady Reddies. Keisha Blackwell pitched in 10.
Valdosta wouldn't go away, and fought back in the second half, but it wasn't enough.
With just less than 10 minutes to go the Lady Blazers pulled to within nine points, after trailing by as much as 19. Janelle Collazo cut the Lady Reddie lead to just six when she hit a jumper to make the score 51-44.
The Lady Blazers never cut into the lead any deeper and missed a few opportunities down the stretch, which allowed the Lady Reddies to pull back out to the nine-point lead.
Valdosta was led by Traci Newton, who had 16 points and 8 rebounds. Nichole Jernigan had 10 points.
The Lady Reddies advance to the semifinals where they will battle West Georgia at 2:45 p.m. Saturday.
Sugar Bears toppled in Tupelo
by Josh Goff
TUPELO, Miss. — Just one year after owning the floor and having a trophy presentation at halfcourt at the BancorpSouth Center in Tueplo, the Sugar Bears left the Gulf South Conference for good in unceremonious fashion Thursday, bowing out of their final GSC tournament with a 63-54 loss to West Georgia.
"We had the opportunity," UCA coach Checola Seals said. "We were up 10, and allowed them to get back in it. We missed some open shots and didn't get some key stops we needed to."
UCA led 44-34 with 14:48 to play after Victoria Richards grabbed an offensive rebound and dished to Caronica Randle, who scored a game-high 24 points, for the easy basket.
It was all downhill after that as the Sugar Bears mustered only four more field goals the rest of the way – including just one in the game's final five minutes – while the Braves ...
... finally got things going. Over the next 12 minutes the Braves took command of the game with a 24-8 run, led by seven straight points from senior Natasha Liggins, who topped UWG with 20 in the game.
"That was a pretty good win," UWG coach Craig Roden said. "We overcame some things, a lot of adversity today. I thought we fought hard. Our seniors really came through for us and played with a lot of poise and confidence down the stretch."
UWG's Tai Ellis, the conference's leading scorer, was held to 14 points but got 12 of those in the second half after being held without a field goal for the game's first 22 minutes.
"I knew the offense would come eventually," she said. "I was just trying to focus. [The first half] was very frustrating, but like my assistant coach always tells me – don't worry about the last shot you missed."
After shrugging off her five first-half misses, Ellis went 5-12 in the second half and finally got UWG over the hump with a jumper at the 5:56 mark to make the score 52-50 Braves. She came back with a pair of free throws with 4:07 to play to put UWG up 54-52 and give them the lead for good. Her buzzer-beating jumper with 2:03 to play put UWG up six, and UCA got only one more basket, from Randle, the rest of the way.
Ellis picked up her third foul with 9:37 to go in the first half and came out of the game shortly thereafter, but the Sugar Bears took only a three-point lead into the locker room at halftime – which was enough to give the Braves confidence.
"I felt like we had a pretty good chance to win the game right there," Roden said. "To go in with your two leading scorers playing maybe 20 minutes between them at the half, we felt like if we got a good half out of them we'd have a chance to win the game."
DSU women pound Huntsville
TUPELO, Miss. — The Delta State Lady Statesmen easily advanced to Saturday's semifinals with a 52-28 demolishing of the Alabama-Huntsville Lady Chargers in Thursday's opening game.
The Lady Chargers made just two field goals and hit a pair of free throws for 7 second-half points. They shot 17.5 percent for the game. Including a 2-of-23 effort in the second half. UAH shot 6 percent from beyond the arc.
UAH scored its first field goal in the second half at the 10-minute mark after going 0-13 from the field. That cut the DSU lead to 41-24.
To make matters worse for UAH, they had 25 turnovers. Delta State had 22 points off turnovers. The Lady Statesmen had 20 turnovers themselves, but shot a little better with 37.5 percent from the field.
Lawanda Stewart led Delta with 11 points.
DSU moves on to face the winner of tonight's West Florida-West Alabama matchup Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
Valdosta men advance, West Georgia wins a wild one
March 01, 2006
TUPELO, Miss. — Valdosta State staved off Christian Brothers 79-67 to start the men's half of the GSC tournament Wednesday night at the BancorpSouth Center.
The Blazers (17-10) advance to take on No. 1 seed from the West Division, Delta State, Friday at 12:30 p.m.
The Bucs (15-13) stayed in the game throughout, but shot just 37.1 percent from the field and really only had production from two of their players. Center Nick Kohs led the Bucs with 21 points and 14 boards, while GSC Player of the Year nominee Kevin Weybright had 20 points.
Valdosta finished with four players in double digits and shot 48.3 percent. VSU was paced by Jon Rogers with 24 points and 11 rebounds. Rogers created havoc for CBU shooters as well, with four blocks. Jon Banks finished with 17 points and 11 boards, Herman Burge had 15 points and Mike Crain finished with 10.
West Georgia 57, Henderson State 54
Wednesday's nightcap between West Georgia and Henderson State started out being one of the ugliest games of the day, but that all changed with just under 15 seconds to go in regulation.
West Georgia (19-9) eventually pulled out a 57-54 win in overtime after a wild last 15 seconds of regulation.
With 14.4 ticks to go West Georgia's Michael Ford hit a 3 from well beyond NBA 3-point range and was fouled to tie the game at 51. The free throw clanged off. Henderson (15-12) advanced the ball and called a timeout. After the timeout the Reddies eventually forced a bad shot. UWG rebounded and pushed it ahead to Antonio Shaw. Shaw was fouled going up for a layup and then missed both free throws with three tenths of a second left to go to force overtime.
With 2:32 left in the overtime, Ford finally hit a pair of free throws for UWG to tie it at 53. Ford gave the Braves the lead, 55-54, with 1:13 left when he hit a driving layup. After Ford's layup, HSU's Michael McCowan missed a pair of free throws. Ford missed a rushed 3-pointer and Henderson got the ball back with 31.4 left in the OT. The Reddies held for one and eventually missed. With 3.1 seconds to go Ford went back to the free throw line. A whistle was blown during the first, which went in, but it counted anyway after some discussion. He hit the second one and the Braves hung on for the 57-54 win.
Both teams' shooting percentages were in the low 30s for the game. Hederson was 17-of-53 from the field for 32.1 percent while the Braves were 18-of-55 from the field good for 23.7 percent.
West Georgia shot just 2-of-14 from beyond the arc for 14.3 percent. The Reddies were slightly better from 3-pont territory, going 4-of-13 for 30.8 percent.
In the first half the Braves shot 8-for-28 in the half, good for 28.6 percent. The Reddies didn't shoot just a whole lot better, at 7-for-20, 35 percent. HSU did make 3-of-7 three-pointers in the half.
Ford led the Braves with 26 points and 8 rebounds. Donte Norton and Dedric Spooner paced the Reddies with 16 points each.
The Braves move on to face the East's No. 1 seed, Montevallo, Friday at 7:30 p.m.
GSC Tourney off to good start
TUPELO, Miss. – The 2006 edition of the Gulf South Conference basketball tournament opened in style Wednesday afternoon as West Alabama's Veronica Lee hit a last-second 3-pointer to give the Lady Tigers a 70-69 win over Arkansas-Monticello.
Lee's shot twirled around the rim for a good while before finally deciding to drop. The Lady Tigers (13-15) had possession with 6.2 seconds left on the clock, but missed a shot attempt and then forced a jump ball. UWA won possession and that's when Lee worked her magic.
UAM (15-13) held a 10-point lead late in the game, but let West Alabama climb all the way back.
Lee finished with 28 points and 8 boards coming off the bench for UWA. Emily Nalls had 13 points for the Lady Tigers and Jamie Walker had 10.
UAM was led by Katrina Dean with 22 points and 7 rebounds. Jenna Thomas had 15.
The Lady Tigers move on to the quarterfinals where they will take on the No. 1 seed from the East Division West Florida tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.
Valdosta State 58, Southern Arkansas 45
Last year's GSC Tournament runner-up Valdosta State cruised past Southern Arkansas 58-45 in the second game of the 2006 edition of the tournament Wednesday afternoon.
The Lady Muleriders (13-15), the No. 5 seed from the West, had the game tied at 18 with 3:52 to go in the first half, but Valdosta (18-9) went on a 10-0 run to end the half and took a 30-20 lead into the locker room.
SAU was able to cut the lead back to three with 12:26 left in the game, but Valdosta proved to be too much and went on another run to stay pretty well ahead the rest of the game. The Lady Blazers led by as much as 14 in the second half.
Valdosta was led by Traci Newton's 18 points and 6 rebounds. Carley Peterson added 10 points and Nina Risto had 8.
Latrice Booker led the Lady 'Riders with 16 points and 5 rebounds.
The Lady Blazers move on to the quarters where they will face Henderson State in a rematch of last year's GSC semifnal at 7:30 tomorrow. Last season VSU knocked off the Lady Reddies to advance to the championship game against UCA.
