enswaclopedia said:
And you lost a play in game. We talking about a PLAY-IN GAME. Not Carolina, Duke, or Kentucky but a PLAY-IN game against a team that nobody ever heard of with a 40% winning percentage. You stayed in the tournament for 55 hours. That has to be a record for the shortest time in the dance.
Trotter takes A&M to first SWAC title
League's top player scores 24 in win over ASU
Monday, March 14, 2005
By REGGIE BENSON
Times Sports Staff
[email protected]
BIRMINGHAM - Obie Trotter hadn't played up to his billing through the first two games of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament.
In fact, Trotter, the league's Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, hadn't done all that much during the first half of Sunday's final against Alabama State.
His 3-pointer with four minutes left in the half gave the Bulldogs a 10-point advantage, but the Hornets scored five unanswered points to pull to within 28-23 at intermission.
But after Dustin Richmond drained a 3-pointer to open the second half to pull ASU within a basket, Trotter took matters into his very capable hands.
The 6-foot-1 junior from Robertsdale nailed six 3-pointers over the next seven minutes - part of a 22-5 A&M run - that gave the Bulldogs a commanding 50-31 advantage. They cruised the rest of the way en route to their first SWAC Tournament title with a 72-53 win over the Hornets in front of 6,167 fans at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.
A&M improved to 18-13 and earned a date with Oakland, Mich., in the NCAA Tournament play-in game Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio. Tipoff is 6 and the game will be televised on ESPN.
It will be A&M's first trip to the NCAA Tournament since moving up to the Division I level seven years ago. A&M participated in seven NCAA Tournaments when it was a Division II member.
"I felt like I was in a zone," Trotter said afterward. "It was amazing. I wasn't doing too good the first two games, but I stepped it up a little bit more.
"The first shot went down and Coach (Vann Pettaway) kept calling my number and my teammates were getting me open. I was just shooting the ball and it was going in."
Trotter finished with a game-high 24 points, five assists and six steals and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. He was 8-of-14 from the field and 8-of-10 from the beyond the arc.
"Once he wound one up and it went down, we went to him," Pettaway said.
"When we get a kid with a hot hand, we ride him out until they stop him or that player stops himself."
Trotter didn't stop himself. Neither did ASU.
"He was outstanding," ASU coach Rob Spivery said. "He was the difference in the game."
Joe Martin backed Trotter with 17 points and six rebounds.
