Academy raced past Class A No. 10-ranked Bartlett 61-48 and Rogers survived to beat Troy 46-40 in Tuesday’s semifinal round.
The Bumblebees (13-3) will face the Eagles (8-7) in today’s 2:30 p.m. championship game, after the host Trojans (9-8) and the Bulldogs (10-5) meet at noon in the third-place contest.
Academy 61, Bartlett 48
The Bees’ gameplan was simple: Find a way to slow down Bartlett guard Pierre Smith, the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, who averages just more than 20 points per game.
For most of their semifinal, that task fell on the shoulders of Connor McAtee.
His defense frustrated Smith, who had nine points. Without their top scorer’s usual contribution, the Bulldogs had trouble establishing their fast-paced offense.
Bartlett shot 34 percent from the field overall and failed to make a basket in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs entered the quarter trailing by just three points after an 11-2 run to close the third.
The biggest point of emphasis from Academy coach Ed Glendening was keeping Smith out of the lane to prevent layups or passes for easy baskets by teammates.
“That’s what (McAtee) did a great job of,” Glendening said. “He really did a good job of not helping. We do a great job in man-to-man of backside help and that’s where (McAtee) just stayed.
“If (Smith) got going, we were going to be in trouble.”
The Bees took control in the second quarter using a full-court press defense that forced turnovers to fuel a 15-0 run.
McAtee knocked down one of his two 3-pointers, and Chase Reeders and Kyler Kelton, the inside-outside duo that paced the Bees in Monday’s first-round win over Central Texas Christian, scored a combined 10 points.
The speedy but smaller Bulldogs came out attacking in the second half, trying to trim into an 11-point deficit.
“They’re so much bigger than us,” Bartlett coach Peter Reese said. “You just have to attack and try to get them in foul trouble.”
Michael Smith scored six of his team-high 16 points during Bartlett’s third-quarter surge.
Eric Benavides’ 3-pointer less than 5 feet from halfcourt with 0.4 seconds left in the third cut the lead to three, but Bartlett couldn’t get any closer.
Rogers 46, Troy 40
The idea that a basketball team could win a game by making just one field goal in the second half is staggering.
Yet the Eagles managed to do just that, saving themselves by going to the free throw line 37 times.
“It’s unbelieveable,” Rogers coach Shawn Griffin said. “We’ve been known to have a really bad third quarter. We have at least one bad quarter a game and we did.”
Rogers’ ugly 1-for-7 shooting in the third was quite a contrast to a strong first half, when the Eagles shot 55 percent from the field and led by as much as 14.
Forward Matt St. Amour scored 11 of his team-high 13 points in the first half, including six during a 12-0 run early in the second quarter.
Trojans coach David Brawner simply said his team “sleepwalked through the first half.”
The Trojans cut into the deficit in the third quarter, holding the Eagles to just that one basket and a pair of free throws by J.C. Garcia.
Troy held Rogers to just 12 percent from the floor in the second half.
“I thought we did what we had to do on the defensive end to keep us in the game,” Brawner said. “We gave ourselves a chance and that’s all you can ask for in the end.”
The Eagles maintained their lead by going to the free throw line 26 times in the fourth quarter, though they made only 16.
Troy shot just eight free throws in the game.
Stephen Ford scored 14 points to lead the Trojans and Jonathan Bulls had 11.
