Roadrunners’ defense hangs on for semifinal win, clinching berth in NAIA national tournament

Published 9:00 pm Friday, March 3, 2017

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Over two halves on Friday afternoon the Dalton State College basketball team looked completely different. The first half featured a high-flying offensive machine, while the second highlighted a stalwart defensive juggernaut.

In the end, one player fit both descriptions as second seed Dalton State held on to defeat third-seeded Martin Methodist College 69-67 in the semifinals of the Southern States Athletic Conference tournament. The Roadrunners, ranked third in NAIA, will face top seed William Carey University in the championship game today at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

With Friday’s win, Dalton State has clinched a berth in the NAIA national tournament in Kansas City, Mo. March 15-21. The SSAC gets two automatic bids, one for the regular season champion and one for the tournament champion. William Carey and Dalton State tied for first in the standings, but the Crusaders had the tiebreaker advantage. However, if the tournament champion and regular season champion are the same team, then the tournament runner-up gets the automatic bid. Therefore, win or lose today, the Roadrunners will advance to Kansas City.

On Friday, junior guard Reed Dungan hit six 3-pointers and scored 20 points in the first half. Then after the Redhawks made a furious rally to close the game, it was Dungan who blocked a potential game-winning 3-pointer as time expired.

For Dalton State College coach Tony Ingle, Dungan’s play was a microcosm of the versatility the Roadrunners have shown throughout the season.

“Reed got hot and gave us the momentum early but that is so hard to maintain,” he said. “They are a great team and we didn’t make shots in the second half, but we defended. That’s how we coach, if we want to play slow we can play that. If you want to speed it up we can do that. To

win you have to utilize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. And this team does so many different things well, so today you saw two different strengths.”

Dalton State (26-4) rode Dungan’s hot shooting to a double-digit first-half lead. He missed his first shot of the game as the Redhawks (22-10) got out to a 9-2 start, but Dungan made his next eight shots, including four straight 3-pointers that gave the Roadrunners the advantage.

“My teammates kept finding me,” Dungan said. “I had a good warm-up and I just felt it. It felt like I was throwing a rock in the ocean for a while. I just got some open looks and tried to take advantage.”

After Martin Methodist briefly led 21-20, Dalton State went on a 26-7 run that extended its lead to 18 points. The Roadrunners were up 48-35 at halftime.

Dalton State’s offensive explosion came with just one basket from junior guard Isaiah Box, who had been the team’s leading scorer for much of the season. He has been sick with symptoms similar to the flu this week and scored three points in 15 minutes of action in Thursday’s quarterfinal victory over Middle Georgia State.

Box was on the court for a team-high 33 minutes on Friday and while he still struggled to score, making 1 of 6 shots from the field, he dished out eight assists and grabbed six rebounds.

“I feel a lot better but I’m still only about 75 percent,” Box said. “I still have a little something. Yesterday I got in (the game) and took a few shots and thought I was dying. So it felt good to get back out there today.”

After shooting 57 percent from 3-point range in the first half, Dalton State made just 1 of 11 3-pointers in the second half and shot 20 percent from the floor overall. The Roadrunners were able to maintain a lead, however, thanks to its defense. Dalton State forced eight turnovers in the second half and blocked several shots, making up for its offensive deficiency.

But after a basket by Mon’Darius Black gave the Roadrunners a 61-43 lead, the Redhawks rallied. Caleb Chowbay scored 12 of his game-high 29 points and Will Smith added two 3-pointers in an eight-minute stretch where Martin Methodist went on a 18-6 run.

Free-throw shooting hurt the Roadrunners as they made just 8 of 17 attempts in the second half. Mike Harden split a pair at the line to give Dalton State a 68-61 lead with 90 seconds to play, but Chowbay scored six straight points to make it a one-point game with seven seconds left.

Harden was fouled and again missed the first free throw, but made the second. Martin Methodist elected to go for a 3-pointer in the corner for the win, but Dungan closed out and got his hand on the ball to force it to come up short.

“You have to give Martin Methodist credit, they never gave up,” Dungan said. “They did some things to confuse us in the second half. But this will be a learning experience that helps us grow.”

Dalton State now has done something it’s never done before, but the Roadrunners won’t be satisfied. They were eliminated before reaching the finals in their first two appearances in the SSAC tournament. But they didn’t come this far to come up short, they came to win a title.

“We’ve talked about it all year, we came here to win a (conference) championship,” Box said. “We wanted to win the regular season outright but we didn’t. So we came here wanting to do something the school has never done and get ready for Kansas City.”