Roberts and Cedarville battled right down to the wire in the AMC tournament semi final game on Saturday afternoon in Cedarville for the right to gain the second AMC automatic birth and a trip to the NAIA National Tournament in Point Lookout, Missouri. When it was all said and done at the Callan Athletic Center, Cedarville had edged the Raiders 71 to 69 to gain the automatic bid and end the Raiders ten game winning streak. There is still a chance that Roberts will receive an at large bid to be one of the thirty-two teams playing in Missouri, but will not find out until Wednesday afternoon. The Raiders are still preparing for tournament play however, as they will host Geneva College for the East Region Championship on Thursday evening at 7:30 at the Voller Athlectic Center. If Roberts does not receive an at large bid to the NAIA, the winner of Thursday's contest between Roberts and Geneva will head to Oakland City, Indiana and the National Christian Conference Athletic Association tournament.
At Cedarville, the Yellow Jackets took a five point lead into halftime, 34-29. Brian Grant led the way for Cedarville with 13 first half points.
Dan Foley and
Justin Andreozzi each chipped in seven points for the Raiders.
The Yellow Jackets scored the first four points of the second half to open up a nine point cushion, the largest lead for either team in the game. Roberts answered with a 12-4 run to tie the game at 48 with a little over eleven minutes remaining. From that point there were five ties and five different lead changes as both the Raiders and Yellow Jackets answered every opponent shot with a shot of their own. Cedarville was able to make one more play down the stretch and it proved to be the difference.
“We just left a couple of plays on the table at the end of the game,” said a disappointed Coach McCoy. “Harner made huge shots down the stretch and you have to give Pat and his boys credit. They are a quality team and they earned the victory.”
Matt Harner scored 17 of Cedarville's last 23 points to lead all scorers with 25 points. Brian Grant had season highs in points and rebounds scoring 21 points and pulling down 11 boards.
The Raiders now sit with a 19-12 record and will be waiting to see which direction and which tournament they may be heading.
