March 2, 2011
Final Stats
CHARLOTTE, NC -- For most of the season, John Herrington has started games for the Fayetteville State Broncos.
In the first round of the CIAA Tournament, he helped finish Virginia State's season.
Herrington recorded his sixth double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds - six of them off the offensive glass - to lead the Broncos into the quarterfinals of the tournament for the first time since 2008 after a 74-58 victory over Virginia State on Wednesday evening.
Herrington (Jr., Jacksonville, FL) came off the bench for the second straight time after starting 21 of the first 23 games he played with the Broncos during the regular season. But he showed no signs of having any trouble getting into the flow of the game, enjoying his finest game since recording a double-double in Fayetteville State's win over Livingstone on Feb. 12.
"John comes from a proud family, a great home," said Fayetteville State coach Alphonza Kee. "And he has a personal standard as a good basketball player. But the last few games, he hasn't played up to his ability, and we decided we just needed to wake him up a little bit, and maybe the aggressive counseling would get through to him."
The mind game clearly worked.
"Oh yeah, it woke me up," said Herrington, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound center with a voice as soft as his game was loud and clear on Wednesday.
Herrington had some help, though, and it also came off the bench. But Tyrrel Tate (Fr., Raleigh, NC), the Broncos' top reserve and a CIAA All-Rookie selection, is accustomed to that role, and he again smoked the Trojans. Tate, who scored a career-high 21 points against Virginia State (6-21) on Jan. 26, had 17 points and five rebounds against the Trojans this time.
"I know I have to bring the energy," Tate said. "Even when I'm not in the game and on the bench, guys look to me to bring that freshman energy. They've been telling me that all year."
Tate led the South's fifth-seeded Broncos (14-13) with 11 points at the half, getting out into the open floor and leading the Fayetteville State break. While the Broncos' defense stiffened on one end, the Broncos were effective against Virginia State's man-to-man defense on the offensive end, methodically building a 25-13 lead with 8:39 to go in the half.
But Virginia State switched to a 2-3 zone at that point, and the Broncos' began to struggle. The Trojans held Fayetteville State without a score for more than 5 minutes and did most of their damage from the foul line. At one point late in the half, Virginia State had attempted just 21 field goals compared to 18 foul shots, and used the time at the line to rip off a 16-4 run to tie the game at 29 with 29 seconds to go in the half.
"In the first half, playing that 2-3 zone, we looked like a championship team out there," said Virginia State's Brandon Plummer (Sr., Norfolk, VA), who finished with 10 points.
Fayetteville State, thanks to two Tate foul shots near the close of the half - he was 7-for-7 from the line in the first half - took a 31-29 lead into the break.
Virginia State, which lost three times to Fayetteville State, took a lead in the second half, 32-31, with 18:37 to go in the game, but that seemed to, like Kee to Herrington, light a fire under the Broncos.
With a couple of putbacks from Herrington and a 3-pointer from Ariel Robinson, Fayetteville State scored 11 straight points over the next 4:08 to take a 42-32 edge with 14:29 to go in the game. Though the Trojans managed to the trim the deficit to seven a few minutes later, the Broncos struck back with a 17-7 run to effectively put the game away, 60-44, with 6:34 remaining.
Fayetteville State held a 57-26 advantage on the glass against the Trojans, grabbing 21 offensive rebounds while Virginia State managed a mere 20 defensive rebounds. The big edge allowed Fayetteville State to hold a 26-6 spread over the Trojans in second-chance points.
"Look at the rebounding - 57-26, that's more than a 2-to-1 ratio," said Virginia State interim head coach Gene Thompson, who took over in January after George White was reassigned after dropping 13 straight games. "You can't win a basketball game being outrebounded like that."
Justin Bess (Jr., Lanham, MD) led the Trojans with 15 points while Christopher Graves (Jr., Charlotte, NC) added 12.
Now the Broncos will get their third shot at rival Winston-Salem State, the Southern Division's No. 2 seed that received a bye in the opening round. The Rams (19-6) defeated Fayetteville State twice in the regular season, beating the Broncos 74-69 in the regular season finale on Saturday in a game in which FSU was just 10 of 25 from the foul line. They will play in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
"We're blessed to play them again," Tate said of the Rams. "To sum it up, they're not going to beat us three times. We'll be ready."
Herrington was less effusive, but said the Broncos were motivated by the regular season sweep.
"We just have to remember the losses we had against them," he said.
