Cal State San Marcos Overcomes Philander Smith, 85-79
by Sam Knehans, NAIA Sports Information
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Box Score) No. 3-seeded Cal State San Marcos (Calif.) held on to best Philander Smith (Ark.), 85-79, in first round action at the 2015 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship Wednesday. The Cougars will next take on Arizona Christian—which upset No. 14-seeded Georgetown, 94-82, in the first round—on Friday, March 20 at 10:45 a.m.
Cal State San Marcos was buoyed by a pair of seniors—guard Blake Nash, who netted 23 points, and forward Julian Camper, who scored a season-high 25 points—in the victory. Camper also paced the Cougars with a team-high nine rebounds, while Nash dished out a game-high eight assists.
Senior forward Tony Freeland rounded out the trio of double-digit scorers for Cal State San Marcos with 11 points.
“We just have to play defense for 40 minutes because we almost let this slip away,” said Cal State San Marcos head coach Jim Saia. “If we would have taken care of the ball in the press, we would have won by 15 points. We are just happy to win and advance in this tournament.”
After leading by five at the half, 47-42, Cal State San Marcos looked like it may have outclassed the Panthers during the second period, as it nursed an 11-point advantage with 4:05 remaining in the contest. Then Philander Smith went on an 8-0 run—with six points coming on free throws—over the next two minutes to cut the lead to three, before the Cougars closed out its unseeded opponent by sinking 6-of-8 free throws over the final 1:46.
“Next year I plan to be right back here,” said Philander Smith junior guard Ronald March. “We have to come to win. Throughout the year, today included, we showed that we could play with anyone. We just did not execute the way we needed to in order to take the win.”
The Cougars and Panthers shot nearly identical percentages from the field, from beyond the arc and at the free throw line in the matchup, with Cal State San Marcos holding a slight edge from the field 45.90 (28-of-61) to 42.86 (27-of-63) and Philander Smith edging out the Cougars at the charity stripe, 69.57 (16-of-23) to 63.89 (23-of-36). The teams shot an identical 30 percent from 3-point range, with Cal State San Marcos knocking down 6-of-20 shots from long range and Philander Smith hitting 9-of-30.
Cal State San Marcos won the battle in the paint, 40-24, and on the boards, 45-34, which proved to be the difference in the contest. Paramount among the advantages was the Cougars’ 14 offensive rebounds, which they converted into 18 second-chance points.
March led the way for Philander Smith with 24 points, while all five Panthers starters scored in double-figures. Senior forward LaDon Carter grabbed a team-high nine rebounds and tied March for the game-high with three blocks.
Philander Smith concludes its season with a record of 20-10 and falls to 0-3 all-time in national championship play.
Cal State San Marcos improves to 29-3 overall and 3-2 in national championship action. This is the second-straight first round victory for the Cougars, who advanced to the quarterfinals of last year’s national championship.
Game Notes:
Cal State San Marcos – The Cougars are making their third-straight appearance in the national championship and advance to the second round for the second-straight year… Cal State San Marcos improves to 3-2 all-time in the event… The Cougars are riding a six-game winning streak after today’s win… Camper tallied 25 points in the win, matching his season-high set against Vanguard (Calif.) on Feb. 24… Nash bettered his averages of 17.47 points per game (33rd in NAIA Division I) and 6.00 assists per game (2nd in NAIA Division I), scoring 23 points and dishing out eight assists.
Philander Smith – The Panthers lost in the first round of the national championship for the third-straight year and fell to 0-3 all-time in the event… Philander Smith went 1-5 against national championship qualifiers during the regular season… After averaging 89.3 points per game on the season, the Panthers were held to 79 in the first round contest… Philander Smith was also held to 29.6 percent shooting from beyond the arc after averaging 40.0 percent from 3-point range on the year… Philander Smith will graduate four seniors from the 2014-15 squad, accounting for 46.0 percent of the total minutes played this season.
