March 27, 2010
Boxscore
IUP fell one step short of the first NCAA national championship in school history with a 65-53 loss to Cal Poly Pomona Saturday at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass.
The Crimson Hawks finished the finest season in men's basketball history with a school-record 33 wins against only three losses and their first trip to the national championship game. Cal Poly Pomona, which won 21 of its final 22 games, won its first national title after losing in overtime to Findlay in last year's final. The Broncos have been in the Elite Eight four times in the past eight years.
By advancing to the championship game, IUP finished its longest run ever in the NCAA tournament. Prior to this season, the Indians as they were then known reached the national semifinals in 1995 and 2002.
IUP, which had its 15-game winning streak snapped, was attempting to become the first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference team to win a men's basketball title since Cheyney in 1978. But the Crimson Hawks shot a season-tying low 30.2 percent and allowed the Broncos to hit 53.2 percent from the field, only the second time this season an opponent cracked the 50 percent mark vs. IUP this year.
Darryl Webb completed an honor-filled junior season with his selection to the all-tournament team. He had a team-high 12 points and a game-high 13 points vs. Cal Poly Pomona, his fifth double-double in six NCAA tournament games and 18th of the season.
Webb became the IUP single season and career rebounding leader. He had 376 rebounds on the year, passing Lee McCullough for the season record, and eclipsed McCullough and Garry Lupek for the career record with 890. In addition to his selection to the all-tournament team, Webb was also named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-America team and the MVP of the Atlantic Region tournament.
Akida McLain was the only other Crimson Hawk in double figures, finishing with 10 points and seven rebounds in the final game of his only season on the IUP roster. Thomas Young also had seven rebounds, and IUP held a 36-31 advantage on the boards.
Cal Poly Pomona stifled the Crimson Hawks with their match-up zone defense, holding IUP 25 points below its season average of 78.1 and living up to its reputation as one of the best defensive teams in the nation. The Broncos entered the NCAA tournament leading the nation in scoring defense and held their opponents to below 40 percent shooting for the year.
Donnelle Booker led four Broncos in double figures with 13 points in a balanced offense that also saw Dahir Nasser and Austin Swift score 12, Tobias Jahn tally 10 and Dwayne Fells put in nine. Swift averaged 15.7 points and 7.0 rebounds in the three Elite Eight games and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. He was joined on the all-tournament team by Nasser.
IUP did not hit a field goal over the opening eight minutes and trailed by double figures for most of the game before making one run late in the contest to get the deficit below 10 when a layup by Ashton Smith made it 59-50 with 1:24 remaining. The Crimson Hawks got the ball back when Mark Rutledge was called traveling but Young was called for a charge to prevent IUP from getting any closer.
Rutledge made two free throws to give the Broncos an 11-point lead, and Julian Sanders was fouled attempting a 3-pointers. He drained all three free throws to make it 61-53, the closest the Crimson Hawks had been since it was 15-8, but Cal Poly Pomona broke the IUP press for a dunk by Booker that clinched the win with 40 seconds left.
The Broncos raced to an 8-0 lead in the opening 3:11 and built their margin to 13-2 before Smith hit a 3-pointer at the 12:09 mark for IUP's first field goal of the game. Sanders also connected from beyond the arc 42 seconds later to make it 15-8, but Swift hit a 3 on the other end, and Mitchel Anderson had a layup off a turnover to make it 20-8 midway through the opening 20 minutes. Another 3-pointer by Sanders made it 30-21 with 3:51 to go before the break, the last time IUP was within single digits until the closing minute.
The defeat marked the third time that IUP has lost to a California-based school at the Elite Eight. IUP lost to Cal State Bakersfield in the 1994 quarterfinals and were edged 73-69 by Cal Riverside in the national semifinals the following year. Saturday's game was the first ever between IUP and Cal Poly Pomona.
