The Semifinals of the 2012 SoCon Tournament are set with Western Carolina taking on UNC Greensboro and Elon taking on Davidson in the night cap. Davidson is the only team left from the SoCon's southern division and came into the tournament as the favorite to earn the conference's automatic bid to this year's NCAA Tournament.
Western Carolina has won six straight games overall and has defeated The Citadel and Wofford to reach the semifinals. UNC Greensboro earned a first-round bye in the tournament and defeated Appalachian State to advance to the semis.
Elon knocked off Georgia Southern in the second round of the tournament and will take on Davidson who has won three straight and knocked off Furman on its way to the semifinal round.
The Georgia Southern Eagles basketball season has come to an end as they lost to the Elon Phoenix 65-58 in the quarterfinals of the SoCon tournament. Eric Ferguson did put up a game-high 21 points for Georgia Southern, but it was not enough to get them past Elon.
Georgia Southern trailed the entire game but made the game interesting when they made a comeback late in the second half and made it a 60-58 game when Jelani Hewitt hit a jumper with 2:19 left in the game, but those would be the last points that Georgia Southern would score. Elon's Lucas Troutman responded to Hewitt's jumper to go up four and then Elon made three free throws down the stretch to advance to the semifinals of the SoCon tournament.
The Georgia Southern Eagles will take their next step towards a chance at playing for the 2012 NCAA tournament as they prepare to face the No. 3 seeded Elon Phoenix at 8:30 p.m in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference tournament the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, North Carolina.
In the first game of four in the quarterfinals, the Applachian State Mountaineers have a 39-32 halftime lead over the UNC-Greensboro Spartans in a matchup of the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds respectively.
The league's top seed, the Davidson Wildcats, will face the Furman Paladins at 6:00 p.m. Davidson is the favorite to bring home the title and represent the conference in the NCAA tournament. If Davidson were to lose, then there's a chance the conference could receive two bids due to Davidson's strong record and big wins. Here is the schedule for Saturday's action.
The No. 3 seeded Georgia Southern Eagles escaped over No. 6 seed Chattanooga Mocs, 76-70 to advance to the quarterfinals of the SoCon tournament. Georgia Southern started off slow against Chattanooga and was trailing by eight at the half, but then they turned it around. In the first half Chattanooga's defense smothered Georgia Southern and held them to 37 percent shooting.
In the second half Georgia Southern's offense came alive and finally took their first lead with 4:33 left after a 10-2 run to go up 66-64, and from that point forward Georgia Southern would not relinquish that lead.
Sophomore Eric Ferguson led GSU with 26 points and eight rebounds, while Jelani Hewitt added 15 points and nine rebounds.
Georgia Southern next takes on No. 3 seeded Phoenix Elon at 8:30 p.m.
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