SPRINGFIELD, Mass. Junior Oscar Assie (Ansonia, Conn.) registered a season-best 15 points and added 12 boards, but it was not enough as the top-seeded American International College Yellow Jackets dropped a 86-65 contest to No. 5 Southern Connecticut in the NCAA East Regional Semifinals this evening from the Butova Gymnasium.
With the loss AIC finishes their season at 24-7 improving their win total by 15 games from a season ago and SCSU will move on to the Regional Championship against Southern New Hampshire University on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.
A back-and-forth game that saw eight ties and 11 lead changes over the first 24 minutes quickly became one-sided as sophomore Austin Carter (Bloomfield, Conn.) hit a layup with 15:25 remaining in the game for a 45-44 lead and never looked back.
The Owls got the lead to as much as seven on multiple occasions and the Yellow Jackets couldn't string back-to-back possessions together as the best they managed was a three from junior Cameron Dobbs (Albany, N.Y.) followed by a layup from Assie and another trey by senior Bobby Harris (Berlin, N.J.) over a one minute span from 13:40 to 12:42, but even so the Jackets couldn't get stops as SCSU sandwiched easy buckets in between and the closest the hosts could get was within three.
The lead then ballooned over the final 5:28 as American International was held without a made field goal during that stretch of play as Southern Connecticut cruised to an 86-65 victory.
Down 18-12 at the 12:01 mark of the first half AIC used a 7-0 run to grab the one point lead as freshman Nolan Woodward (Montreal, Quebec) scored four straight points and then senior Bobby Harris (Berlin, N.J.) was able to connect from distance for the 19-18 score.
Then a mini spurt of 7-3 capped off by three points from the charity stripe by senior Tylon Smith (Manchester, Conn.) gave the visitors a four point edge at 25-21 at the 6:08 mark of the half.
The Jackets came right back to tie it as Dobbs connected on his first three-point basket of the evening making the score 25-25 just 25 seconds later.
The entire first half was a back-and-forth affair seeing seven ties and seven lead changes and it continued that way until the final buzzer as just before the horn sounded junior Stefon Williams (Jamaica, N.Y.) grabbed a rebound and threw it off the glass for the 37-35 edge.
Senior Luke Houston (Pearl River, N.Y.) led all scorers with 20 points while junior Desmond Williams (Torrington, Conn.) and sophomore Michael Mallory (Waterbury, Conn.) added 18 and 17 points, respectively. Williams also grabbed 11 boards for a double-double effort.
Dobbs and Woodward joined Assie in double figures as they chipped in with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Southern Connecticut shot 30-of-71 (42 percent) from the field while AIC managed 23-of-61 (38 percent). The Owls also controlled the glass 48-40 including 21 offensive rebounds which led to 20 second chance points. SCSU also controlled the paint (30-18) and bench points (14-3).
