CONWAY, S.C. – Tashan Newsome led five double-figure scorers with 15 points and Gardner-Webb defeated Campbell 71-57 Thursday night in the quarterfinal round of the VisitMyrtleBeach.com Big South Championship at The HTC Center.
The Bulldogs (21-11) won their eighth-straight game and will advance to Saturday's 2:00 p.m. semifinal against either High Point or Liberty.
Tyler Strange scored 14 points, Donta Harper and Kevin Hartley 12 each and Jerome Hill 10 for the Gardner-Webb, which finished 2nd in the South Division and has won 11 of its last 12 outings.
Andrew Ryan led Campbell (13-20) with 17 points; Marvelle Harris added 13 and Trey Freeman 11 for the Camels, who finished third in the North Division.
Campbell cut an 8-point half-time deficit to 5 (36-31) on Darius Leonard's layup with 17:20 to play, but GWU scored 10 unanswered points capped by Strange's backdoor cut with 9:27 to go that pushed the margin to 52-35.
A sophomore point guard from Leominster, Mass., Strange tied his career high scoring total on 6-of-12 from the floor and 2-of-5 threes. Newsome made all 7 of his free throw attempts, grabbed 5 rebounds and dealt 3 assists. Harper went 6-of-6 from the line and pulled down a team-leading 8 boards, while Hartley canned 3-of-6 triples and grabbed 7 rebounds.
The Bulldogs hit 22-of-26 (.846) from the line and shot 48 percent (22-46) from the field on the night. Campbell made 40 percent of its shots and finished with a 16-4 edge in second-chance points, but connected on only 6-of-13 (.462) from the stripe.
Gardner-Webb went on an early 16-2 run and led 24-10 when Jerome Hill scored with 8:45 left in the opening half. After Hill made a jumper from the right baseline with 4:50 to push the lead to 26-12, the Camels responded with a 10-0 burst, capped by Harris' offensive board and dunk to trim the gap to 26-22 with 4:15 remaining.
The Bulldogs shot 46 percent from the field and made all 8 of their free throws to take a 34-26 lead at intermission. Harper had 10 first-half points and Hill 8 for GWU. Campbell stayed close thanks to an 11-0 edge in second-chance points off eight offensive boards.
Ryan scored 15 of his points in the second half, when he made 5-of-7 shots, including 3-of-3 beyond the arc, and hit a pair of free throws. Harris led CU on the glass with 8 rebounds and Freeman finished with 5 assists.
Saturday's first semifinal game pits South Division champion Charleston Southern against North Division runner-up VMI at 12:00 p.m. Earlier Thursday, CSU defeated Winthrop 54-47, while VMI ousted Longwood 90-86.
Gardner-Webb Head Coach Chris Holtmann
"I give our kids a lot of credit. I think Robbie has done a terrific job with Campbell. I give them a lot of credit for weathering a significant injury (Darren White) for their team this season. This has been kind of a recipe for us down the stretch, finding different ways to win. Our defense was consistent throughout to weather some spotty offensive stretches. Tyler (Strange) was outstanding down the stretch and made some big plays for us.
"This season has really been a tribute to the process of getting better every day. Our practices have been really, really good. I certainly didn't anticipate a 20-win season, but I didn't know what to anticipate. It has been a special group led by our two seniors."
Campbell Head Coach Robbie Laing
"Gardner-Webb is really a good basketball team. They established a bar of how intensely the game would be played early on and we did not match that. In the second half, we hung with them a little bit, but missed layups, missed free throws and turnovers really hurt us. They're really poised and play so well together. Whatever mistakes we made on defense, they exposed. They were a superior ball club tonight. We had a rebounding advantage in the first half, but that disappeared quickly."
