Big South quarterfinals
March 2 at Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill, SC
espn3.com
If Campbell was to pull off the quarterfinal upset of the co-regular season champions, it figured it would need a big day from Chris Clemons.
But this was just ridiculous.
Clemons scored a conference and school record 51 points and the Camels stunned the defending tournament champions, 81-79 for the first major upset of the postseason.
Clemons, a sophomore guard, came into the night fifth nationally in scoring at 23.2 points, but he equaled that mark with five minutes still to go in the first half, scoring 23 of Campbell's first 25. He broke the Big South Tournament record when he reached the 37-point plateau on a second-half 3-pointer (Clemons was 8-of-14 from behind the arc).
He made a great spin move at the three-point line, and drove for a difficult finish at the rim, which turned into a three-point play and tied the game at 67-67 with six minutes left. Clemons' three with 4:27 left gave the Camels the lead for good.
Clemons made a tournament-record 18 field goals in 32 attempts.
Asheville led by as much as 14 points in the opening half as Campbell struggled to find an offensive compliment to its first-team all-Big South performer. The Bulldogs built a six-point lead on Ahmad Thomas' jumper at the 7-minute mark of the second, but Clemons followed by scoring nine straight Campbell points.
Big South freshman of the year Macio Teague played really well and finished with a team-high 22 points to pace five Bulldogs in double figures. Also for Asheville, Alec Wnuk was excellent off the bench (13 points on 6-of-10 shooting, nine rebounds and three assists with no turnovers).
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