St. John Fisher Advances to NCAA Division III Sweet 16 for Third Consecutive Year
March 3, 2007
From St. John Fisher Sports Information Release
St. John Fisher College advanced to Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship for the third straight year with a 95-87 win over visiting SUNY Plattsburgh on Saturday night.
Fisher (24-5) shot a season-high 61.8% from the floor and committed just nine turnovers. The Cardinals, who have now won 100 games over the last four years, will face SUNY Brockport on Friday in the Regional Semifinals at a site and time to be determined. Fisher lost to Brockport 97-86 in the season-opener and defeated the Golden Eagles 85-81 back in January.
"We've played against teams that shoot the ball well and we've played teams that take it to the basket pretty well," Plattsburgh head coach Tom Curle said. "St. John Fisher did both tonight better than anyone we've seen."
Fisher enjoyed a 45-39 lead intermission, but Plattsburgh tied the game at 55-55 on a 3-pointer with 14:11 left. The Cardinals, however, responded, rattling off a 12-0 run with seniors Dan Mueller, Dan McSweeney and Adrian Fenyn scoring all 12 of the points during the run.
Plattsburgh (21-9) cut Fisher's lead down to four points at 91-87 with 29 seconds, but Fisher, who shot 21-for-24 (88.9%) from the foul line for the game, put the game away, making all four of its shots from the foul line.
Mueller scored 22 of his team-high 25 points the second half, going 6-for-9 from the floor (three 3-pointers) and 10-for-10 from the foul line. McSweeney shot 7-for-8 from the floor and finished with 17 points, while Justin Beigel and Matt Newman each finished with 14 points. Newman also finished with six assists and Beigel added seven rebounds.
Anthony Williams led Plattsburgh with 30 points, six rebounds and five assists. Jerrad Dumont and Khylan Hunt each finished with 15 points.
"Our players rose to the occasion," says Fisher head coach Rob Kornaker. "We played well and did a great job of not turning the ball over and made the shots when we need to. Plattsburgh is a very talented team and they gave us all we could handle."