DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 16th-ranked and No. 3 seed Embry-Riddle Eagles used a torrid shooting percentage in the first half to cruise to an 87-75 quarterfinal victory over the sixth-seeded Warner Royals in The Sun Conference Tournament on Saturday night. The Eagles (23-8) avenged an overtime loss to the Royals (18-13) just three days earlier in Lake Wales by placing five players in double-figures and outrebounding the visitors by 15. Embry-Riddle also kept their perfect record of playoff games in the ICI Center intact, extending the mark to 22-0 all-time. The Blue and Gold advance to the Final Four, hosted by top-seeded Northwood in West Palm Beach, where they will tak on the No. 2 seed Webber International in a 5 p.m. game on Monday night.
The Eagles shot 64 percent from the floor in the opening period, including a 7-for-14 clip from beyond the arc, to jump out to a 45-32 lead at the break, and although the Royals cut it to within nine on a couple of occassions in the second half, the Eagles were never in danger of giving up their advantage.
Embry-Riddle made its first 10 shots in the game, going up by six when
Cesar Pastrana got a feed from
Daniel Mondragon and converted an easy layup at the 12:33 mark.
Jeremiah Applin buried a trey to extend the Eagle advantage to nine, but back-to-back three-pointers from Bryce Kachinski and Ian Wilhelm brought the Royals to within three at 23-20.
Ray Victor dunk at the 7:59 mark cut the Warner deficit to just one, by the Blue and Gold would quickly put together a 7-0 run to go back up by eight.
Leading by five with 3:30 on the clock, the Eagles outscored the visitors 10-2 to close out the half, including three-pointers from Mondragon and
Sam Ford and an off-balance jumper from
DeForest Carter with the shot clock winding down in the Eagles' last possession of the frame.
After Victor opened the second half scoring with a breakaway dunk, the home team put the next 11 points on the board to balloon the lead to the largest of the night at 22 with 15:07 remaining in the second half.
Daniel Kiesling scored eight points in four minutes to give Embry-Riddle a 21-point cushion at 61-40, but the Royals uitlized a full-court press from that point forward, attempting to claw their way back into the game.
Kachinski's trey with 39 seconds left pulled the visitors to within 84-75, but the clock was in the Eagles' favor and three straight free throws from
Jason Powell and Carter ended the game and accounted for the 87-75 final.
Embry-Riddle shot 56 percent from the field for the game and 86 percent from the charity stripe (25-29). 21 Eagle turnovers led to 24 Royal points, but Embry-Riddle scored 22 points off of 14 Warner turnovers to even things up.
Kiesling scored 17 for the Eagles, tying a career-high, while also pulling down eight rebounds. Pastrana went a perfect 5-for-5 from the field a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line for 16 points. He also grabbed a game-high 11 boards. Carter finished with 16 points, 11 assists, six rebounds, three blocks and two steals while Mondragon chipped in 14 points and five assists and the final Eagle in double-figures was Powell with 12 points, five rebounds and five assists.
The Blue and Gold will look to make it two straight revenge games when they face Webber International on Monday. The Warriors knocked off the Eagles twice during the regular season for the first time since 1994-95.
