#MustangsWin! Men's Basketball Advances to AMC Semifinals for Fifth Straight Season!

Erik Holth, CBC Sports Information Director

            Conway, Ark. – Looking for their fifth consecutive trip to the American Midwest Conference tournament semifinals, Central Baptist College men's basketball hosted the Eagles of Williams Baptist University this afternoon at A.R. Reddin Fieldhouse. CBC (15-14) got off to a slow start and poured it on in the second half, recovering from a deficit with under eight minutes to play to beat WBU (16-11) 100-91 and advance to the AMC semifinals for the fifth time in a row.

            Kelvin Robinson scored 30 for the second straight game, going 9-15 from the field and 12 of 13 at the free throw line. Neither team led by more than 11 and the score was tied eight times and featured nine lead changes. CBC was also able to capitalize on the glass, outrebounding Williams 45-31 and scoring 24 second chance points to just 16 for the Eagles.

GAME FLOW

            The first half was back-and-forth, with neither team leading by more than seven and CBC taking a 47-46 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Mustangs would score the first five points of the second half to increase the lead to six, but WBU would not go down without a fight, retaking the lead with 16:55 to go and holding it until a Braylon Steen layup made it 61-60 Mustangs with 14:14 left. A pair of free throws and a three from WBU put CBC behind again and CBC trailed 77-74 with 7:42 left. From there, the offense really picked up for the Mustangs. Brimble, who had 27 points on eight threes, canned a triple to tie the score and Robinson followed with a jumper to put CBC back in front 79-77. A three by Steen and a free throw by James Moore, who finished with a 17-point, 10 rebound double-double, stretched the lead to six and caused the Eagles to fall apart. WBU would then get a technical foul called against them and after Brimble made a free throw, he canned another three to stretch the lead to 10 and put the game out of reach.

GAME NOTES

• Robinson's 30-point effort was his fourth such game of the season, and he barely missed a triple-double, finishing with nine assists and nine rebounds as well
• Moore's double-double was his third and he also added five blocked shots
• Brimble's eight threes tied him with a host of others for the second most in a single game in program history
• Steen finished with 15 points in the contest
• CBC is now 18-14 all-time against Williams Baptist, dating back to 2003
• The Mustangs improved to 12-1 when leading at the half this season
• CBC's 53 point second half was the 84^th 50-point half in program history and the fourth this season
• CBC eclipsed the century mark for just the second time this season. The other occurrence was a 113-point effort against Bacone in Nov.

UP NEXT

            CBC will face the top-seed in the AMC tournament Missouri Baptist in the semifinals tomorrow at the Petty Student Resources Center in St. Louis. Tipoff for the game is scheduled for 4 p.m. and CBC will try to duplicate what they did in the 2019 tournament, where they also beat a top-seeded Missouri Baptist team en route to a championship.