DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Seattle University men's basketball outscored Evansville by 20 points in the second half to rally for a 71-57 win in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Ro College Basketball Invitational Monday night at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The Redhawks (21-14) move on to Tuesday night's semifinals against Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference runner-up Fairfield (24-12). Tip off is set for 9 p.m. Eastern Time, 6 p.m. Pacific on ESPN2.
"In the first half we couldn't get any momentum, we didn't have much energy and we were struggling to get anything going," said Head Coach Chris Victor. "In the second half we started with different energy, different focus on defense and different physicality. And when you do that, some shots started to fall for us and our offense followed.
Seattle U was 0-of-7 from three and just 9-of-22 overall in the first half. A 10-of-13 performance at the line kept the Redhawks close as they trailed 34-28 at the break.
A 9-2 run to open the second half, including an alley-oop slam by Seyi Reiley and a Cameron Tyson three gave the Redhawks their first lead since the opening minutes of play, 37-36, with 14:54 to play.
The Purple Aces responded with a brief spurt, but Seattle U answered again, this time with a 15-2 surge that included three straight threes - one from John Christofilis and a pair back-to-back from Tyson, breaking open a double-digit lead and forcing an Evansville timeout.
The lead would balloon to as many as 17 and never get closer than eight as Seattle U sealed the game with defense and free throws.
Alex Schumacher finished with a game-high 22 points while Tyson and Kobe Williamson added 11 points each. Brandton Chatfield added nine points, all in the first half, and Reiley had eight points and eight boards.
"Alex was struggling in the first half," said Victor. "Four turnovers, very unlike him. But in the second half he had a completely different mindset, took care of the basketball, made some great reads and finished really well around the basket."
"Paris Dawson also gave us a huge spark. He came in and really guarded when we needed, had great energy and made some big plays for us."
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