Second half rally helps Asbury past RedStorm

Rio Grande Sports Information
WILMORE, Ky. - For the better part of 26 minutes, the University of Rio Grande appeared poised to record a post-season upset of Asbury University.
But all of the positives that the RedStorm built during that time vanished in a disastorous 10-1/2-minute stretch in the second half.
A stretch in which head coach Ken French's team failed to recover from.
The host Eagles turned an eight-point deficit into a 15-point lead and went on to post an 83-65 win over Rio Grande in the quarterfinal round of the River States Conference Men's Basketball Championship, Wednesday night, at the Luce Activities Center.
Asbury, the No. 2 seed from the league's West Division, improved to 21-9 with the victory and advances to Saturday's semifinal round and a meeting with East Division No. 1 seed and RSC regular season champion West Virginia University-Tech, which ousted Brescia University in another of Wednesday's quarterfinal contests.
Rio Grande, the No. 3 seed from the East Division, finished its season at 12-19 and slipped to 1-6 against the Eagles all-time.

The RedStorm emerged from a see-saw first half, which featured eight ties and five lead changes, with a 43-37 lead at the intermission and stretched their cushion to as many as eight points on four occasions early in the second half, including 54-46 after a bucket by senior Earl Russell (Warrington, England) with 14:41 left in the contest.
But Asbury, backed by a large and boisterous student fan section, suddenly caught fire as Rio simultaneously went ice cold from the field.
The Eagles reeled off 26 of the game's next 29 points and turned the eight-point deficit into a 15-point lead, 72-57, following a Dave McCorvey layup with 4:24 left in the game.
Rio got no closer than 13 points the rest of the way and Asbury enjoyed its largest lead of the night, 82-63, after a jumper by Deion Cochran with 53 seconds remaining.
During the game-changing stretch, the RedStorm connected on just one of its 14 shots overall and committed six turnovers. The Eagles also had a 14-8 edge in rebounding over the span.
Trenton Thompson was a one-man wrecking crew for Asbury, finishing with a game-high 33 points - 16 in the first half and 17 after the break - to go along with a game-high 12 rebounds and five blocked shots.
Desmond Duke added 14 points and a team-best three rebounds off the bench for the Eagles, while Cochran finished with three steals.
Asbury shot 50 percent from the field overall - 50 percent in each half - while committing just 10 turnovers and outrebounding Rio, 40-32.
Junior Cameron Schreiter (Mason, OH) led Rio Grande with 13 points, 11 rebounds and a game-high four assists.
Junior Hadith Tiggs (Mayfield Heights, OH) and sophomore Kyle Lamotte (Mason, OH) finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively, while Russell had nine points and a pair of blocked shots in his final appearance as a member of the RedStorm.
Rio Grande shot 50 percent overall (18-for-36) and 55.6 percent from three-point range (5-for-9) in the first half, but went just 10-for-30 overall (33.3%) and 2-for-9 from distance (22.2%) after halftime.