March 20, 2009

Kansas City, Mo. - Westminster College (Utah) ousted 11^th-seeded University of the Cumberlands (Ky.) 67-62 during the second round of the 2009 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at Municipal Auditorium Friday evening.

The sixth-seeded Griffins shot an outlandish 56.5 percent from the field to take a 32-28 halftime advantage into the locker room. Westminster's leading scorer, Geoff Payne, tallied 14 first-half points. The Patriots only shot 40 percent from the field in the opening half, but were able to stay in the game because half of their 10 field goals in the opening period were 3-pointers.

Westminster never trailed in the second half but did have to fight off a charge by Cumberlands, which tied the game on three different occasions. The Griffins fought off that charge by staying hot from the field. Westminster connected on 54.2 percent of its shot attempts in the half and finished 26 of 47 overall from the field for 54.2 percent. Cumberlands, who was five for nine from beyond the arc in the first half, but missed all six of its trey attempts in the second period. The Patriots ended the night by shooting 38.9 percent overall from the field.

Payne ended the night with 24 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with 1:40 left in the game. Danny Stosich added 15 points, including a layup out of a timeout that put the Griffins up 63-60 with 41 seconds left. Cumberlands answered with a two-point basket by Terrence Asmond with 25 ticks left on the clock, but Westminster made four straight free throws from that point to seal the victory.

Travis Harvey came off the bench to score 18 points and grab eight rebounds for the Patriots. Luke Fitzgerald netted 13 points while Josh Phillips contributed 11 points in a losing effort.

Westminster improves to 30-4 this season and will play either No. 3 Union University (Tenn.) or Columbia College (Mo.) in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. CDT on Saturday. Cumberlands finishes its season with a 27-7 overall record.

GAME NOTES

Westminster's Geoff Payne scored 24 points, his second game in the tournament over 20 and his seventh 20+ scoring game over his last eight games ... the game featured two of the top 10 scoring defenses in the NAIA, with each team allowing under 65 points a game ... Westminster advances to the quarterfinals for the first time in school history after winning just its second first-round game ... the last No. 6 seed to reach the quarterfinals was Azusa Pacific in 2006 ... Cumberlands falls to 3-6 in second-round games and is now 13-19 all-time in the tournament.