WVU Tech coach James Long could be heard giving an impassioned postgame speech in the locker room. One of the things he said rang out loud and clear.
"Forty-seven to 24!"
That was the margin of the Golden Bears' instrumental rebounding edge in their 78-67 win over Alice Lloyd on Saturday in their River States Conference semifinal game at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
The win set the Golden Bears up for a trip to overall top seed Indiana-Kokomo on Tuesday (7 p.m.) for the tournament championship. And, as the East Division champion and with Kokomo already clinched, Tech has received an automatic bid to the NAIA national tournament.
It took every bit of energy the Golden Bears could exert to beat Alice Lloyd, which never went away despite severe foul trouble. The Eagles even led twice inside of 10 minutes remaining in the game, but Tech outscored them 20-9 over the final 6:21, including the last 11 points after it was tied 67-67 with 3:27 to go.
"Whoo! I lost my voice," Long said after the game. "That's all you're going to get with Alice Lloyd. You know what you're getting when you sign up to play them. Just a bunch of tough — tough, tough young men. And coached by a tough coach in Scott (Cornett). Scott's a close friend of mine, nothing but respect for him and his culture. Culture is only cliché if you don't have one, and they have one."
Long ought to know. This is the third straight season Tech (26-4) has had to go through Alice Lloyd in the conference tournament. And the Golden Bears were one of the Eagles' victims as they won their first 18 games this season, beating Tech 62-60 on Jan. 20.
This time around, Tech took away the Eagles' calling card.
Alice Lloyd (25-5) is the league's top rebounding team, including an average of 13.4 offensive boards per game. Tech neutralized that, ending with a 47-24 advantage on the glass.
The Eagles managed just five offensive rebounds against Tech.
Tech, meanwhile, cleared 35 defensive boards, including 10 from Andrew Work, who had 11 overall to go with 10 points and four assists. Ashton Parker had nine defensive boards and a career-high total of 16 to go with five assists.
"That's about as good as you can execute against them," Long said. "I mean, I'm struggling for words, I'm so proud of this group. That number, 47-24, does not happen with Alice Lloyd. That's 40 minutes of understanding what you need to do and making the choice to go do it every single time. ... That is the best offensive rebounding team in the country. Last five games they had 90 offensive rebounds — 90 — and 102 second-chance points."
"We lead the league in rebounding and have the last couple of years. Actually, that's been a strength of ours, but they almost doubled us on the boards tonight," Eagles coach Scott Cornett said. "They did a really good job with that, and we got in foul trouble. That took away from our aggressiveness a little bit. That's part of it."
The Eagles were whistled for 24 fouls to Tech's 13. Forward Damon Tobler picked up his fourth foul at the 15:52 mark of the second half and didn't check back in until there was 5:20 to go with Tech leading 64-60.
Just minutes prior to Tobler's fourth, Idris Akinyemi and Will Philpot both picked up their third in rapid succession.
The Eagles ended up with four players committing four fouls and Ben Soumahoro fouled out.
"Our bigs got in foul trouble and that took away some of their aggressiveness rebounding, and (Tech) took advantage of it," Cornett said. "(Tech has) some great athletes and they did a good job on the boards. They took care of business on that."
Despite all that, the Eagles were in the game the whole afternoon.
They led much of the first half, largely thanks to nine Tech turnovers that led to 12 Alice Lloyd points.
With the game tied at 35-35, Tech got possession with 7.2 seconds left after the Eagles' shot clock violation. Luke Vass got the ball while open for a corner 3 with 1.1 on the clock to send the Golden Bears into halftime with a 38-35 lead.
It was far from over.
Alice Lloyd quickly took a 39-38 lead but Tech went right back on top just as quickly on a 3-pointer by Keondre' King.
Tech maintained its lead until Bryce Slone's 3 — which came after Philpot blocked a shot near the basket — with 9:45 on the clock put Alice Lloyd back on top 53-51.
The back-and-forth continued three more lead changes and three more ties, the last at 67-67 on a pair of free throws by Tobler.
Juvante' Hayes then drove to the rim to start a game-ending 11-0 run for the Golden Bears, who have won nine straight. He also ended the run with a pair of free throws with 30.8 seconds left.
Hayes, who was honored before the game for reaching the 1,000-point club, finished with a career-high 32 points. He was 4-of-7 from 3 and 8-of-8 at the free throw line.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game," Hayes said. "To be honest, from my memory, every time we've played them since I've been here it's a tough game until the, like, final four minutes. It depends on who's going to break away. But we've got a lot of respect for that team. We have nothing but respect for them, honestly. They play hard. It's always great competition. They're great people, every last one of them. Great sportsmanship.
"We knew it was going to be a battle. The main focus was just, every possession. Not thinking ahead, not thinking back. Just, what's next? What can we do on this possession? That's just the mindset we tried to have."
Thomas Hailey added 17 points for the Golden Bears.
Noah Young scored 18 points and had six rebounds, five assists and four steals for Alice Lloyd. Tobler had 14 points, Slone 12 and Akinyemi 10.
Philpot, who went in averaging 12.6 points per game, was held to two on 1-of-8 shooting.
While Tech tries to repeat as champion and is assured a sixth straight trip to the national tournament, the Eagles will await their postseason fate, hoping their resumé is enough to get them in for the first time since 1996.
"I hope we can get an at-large," Cornett said. "I mean, we've had a great year. We won 18 in a row and ended up being 25-5. We folded a little bit here lately, but we've still got a good basketball team. I cannot believe, if there's 64 teams in the country, that we're not one of the top 64. That's a biased opinion, of course. I guess we'll just see how it goes."
They have support from at least one outsider.
"I hope they get in the national tournament," Long said. "I think they're deserving. They've had a great year."
