No. 2 Delaware State Hangs on For 57-55 Win over No. 7 Bethune-Cookman Patricia Porter 03/10/10 WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Second-seeded Delaware State built a 17-point lead with just under 14 minutes left and hung on for a 57-55 victory over seventh-seeded Bethune-Cookman Wednesday in quarterfinal action of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament at the Lawrence Joel Veteran Memorial Coliseum. The Hornets, 17-11, advanced to Friday’s semifinals against the winner of Thursday’s matchup between sixth-seeded Maryland-Eastern Shore and South Carolina State, the third seed. Fricsco Sandidge had 15 points, including two free throws with 09.6 seconds left that provided the margin of victory, to lead the Hornets. His free throws gave Delaware State a 57-53 cushion, but the Wildcat’s CJ Reed was fouled on the B-CU possession and made both chances from the line to get his team to within 57-55 with 08.0 seconds left. The Wildcats fouled the Hornets’ Jay Threatt with 07.4 ticks on the clock but the Del-State sophomore missed both opportunities giving B-CU a chance to tie or win the contest with a last second shot. The Wildcats’ Stanley Elliott got to the basket but his layup attempt was just off the mark with just seconds left and the follow by Alexander Starling was waved off by the officials. Following Sandidge in the scoring column for Del-State, which improved to 17-11, were Threatt with 14 points and Marcus Neal with 13. Sandidge led the effort on the boards with nine rebounds, while Neal pulled down five in the win. Elliott and Starling both had 15 points for B-CU, which ended its campaign at 17-16, its first winning season in recent memory. Reed, the team’s top scorer, was held to just 11points, however, the Wildcat sophomore handed out seven assists. In a first half that saw the two teams combine for just 11 points in the first seven minutes, Delaware State scored 12 of the last 14 points to take a 32-22 edge to the locker room. Neal had nine of his total on three 3-pointers during the run. Delaware State started the second half with a 13-6 run to go ahead 45-28 on two free throws by Threatt with 13:44 on the second period clock. Starling converted a three-point play 11 seconds later to trigger an 18-7 Wildcat run that pulled Coach Clifford Reed’s team to with 52-46 with 6:03 left. Sandidge got a three-point play on the other end, staking Del-State to a 55-46 advantage wit 2:43 showing, but the Wildcats would rally again, closing the gap to 57-55 on Reed’s two free throws but the comeback was thwarted at the end as Del-State survived. Hornet head coach Greg Jackson was relieved his team got the victory, but was not happy the way his team played, especially in the second half. “Our effort in the second half was one of the worse halves of basketball I have been associated with as a coach,” Jackson said. “Those final 13 minutes were horrible. In fact, if you played the way we did the last 13 minutes, you don’t deserve to win.” Reed, on the other hand, praised the effort of this Wildcats, especially the second-half comeback. “I’m really proud of the effort we gave tonight,” Reed said. “I was especially pleased with our performance in the second half when we easily could have given up after falling behind by 17 points.”