BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Jordan Whitfield scored 18 points, while Joshua Lusane added 11 plus nine rebounds to lead Campbell over Gardner-Webb 63-57 in the Hercules Tires Big South Championship quarterfinal round Monday at Gore Arena.
 
The third-seeded Camels (16-9) extended their school-Division I era win streak to eight games and will travel to second-seeded Radford (15-11) for Thursday's 6:00 p.m. semifinal.  The Highlanders eliminated seventh seed Hampton 67-52 Monday night.
 
Fifth-seeded Longwood (12-15) will head to top seed Winthrop (21-1) in Thursday's 7:30 p.m. semifinal.  Winthrop defeated High Point 83-54, while Longwood won 77-61 at UNC Asheville.
 
In a game where the final margin was the largest lead for either team, Whitfield twice hit both ends of two one-and-one chances in the last 31.6 seconds and the Camels knocked down 11-of-13 from the line overall to advance to the league semifinals for the second time in three seasons.
 
Jordan Sears led Gardner-Webb with a career-high 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting, and fellow freshman D'Maurian Williams added 13 – all in the second half – for the Runnin' Bulldogs (11-15).
 
Monday's seesaw battle that included 10 lead changes and seven ties came down to the final minutes.  Whitfield broke a 53-all tie with two foul shots with 2:18 to play; then Lusane blocked Williams in the paint on the following possession.
 
Messiah Thompson drove deep into the paint and dumped the ball off to Ricky Clemons for a layup with 1:42 remaining and a four-point advantage.  Williams answered, however, when he made a shot bank shot with 1:21 left to trim the gap to 57-55.
 
Clemons missed a corner three at the end of the shot clock, but sprinted down the court to steal the ball from Sears and the Camels called time with 39.8 seconds to play.  After Whitfield hit both ends with 31.6 seconds left, Jaheam Cornwall missed a corner three, but Ludovic Dufeal followed to again cut the margin to two (59-57).
 
Whitfield again connected from the line to stretch the margin to four (61-57) with 15 seconds left. Cornwall missed a leaning three, and the Camels gained possession when the ball went off a GWU player on the rebound.  Cedric Henderson, Jr., knocked down two from the line with 1.2 seconds left for the final margin.
 
Campbell shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half, 44 percent (22-50) on the night. CU connected on 8-of-15 triples (.533) overall, 5-of-7 in the in the final period, and finished with a 33-29 edge on the boards.
 
Clemons added 9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals with just one turnover in 38 minutes.  Thompson and Milos Stajcic both chipped in 8 points off the bench for the Camels, who won despite their leading scorer Henderson finishing 10 points below his season scoring average of 16.
 
Whitfield made 5-of-12 from the floor, all seven of his free throws, and dealt four assists.
 
After an opening team where neither team led by more than four points, Gardner-Webb led 28-26 at the break.
 
Sears had 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting for the Bulldogs, who hit 44 percent of their first-half attempts, 4-of-14 from 3-point range.  Campbell limited the visitors to 38.7 percent shooting in the second half, 41 percent on the night.  GWU only went to the line four times, making all four, and hit 7-of-27 (.259) threes.
 


Hercules Tires Big South Championship
First Round – Saturday, Feb. 27
#7 Hampton 67, #10 Presbyterian 65
#8 High Point 65, #9 USC Upstate 60
 
Quarterfinals – Monday, March 1
#1 Winthrop 83, #8 High Point 54
#5 Longwood 77, #4 UNC Asheville 61
#2 Radford 67, #7 Hampton 52
#3 Campbell 63, #6 Gardner-Webb 57
 
Semifinals - Thursday, March 4 – ESPN+
Campbell at Radford (6:00 pm)
Longwood at Winthrop (7:30 pm)
 
Championship - Sunday, March 7 – ESPN
at highest remaining seed, 12:00 pm