FERRUM, Virginia -- The Ferrum College men's basketball team advanced to the Semifinals of the 2021 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament after a 73-60 victory over Shenandoah University Saturday afternoon inside of Swartz Gymnasium.

THE BASICS
It was a back-and-forth affair right after the tip in this one, as both teams traded treys to opening the scoring. Shenandoah would then piece together an 11-3 run spanning 7:00+ of the first half. Darius Kemp would stop the run on a layup and start a Panther run, as Ferrum would then turn the tide and run off nine straight points to bring it to just one point with 5:32 to play in the opening stanza. A Kemp dunk with under a minute to play in the half would give the Panthers their first and only lead in the frame, but Shenandoah would close the half on a Zach Garrett trey and take the 32-30 advantage into the midway break.

Ferrum would then answer the call in the second half, as Nick Helton would knock down a trey to knot things up at 40-40. Both teams would then trade a buckets, but a Bryce Hall three would put the Panthers up and they would never look back. Ferrum would go on a 13-2 run started by the Hall trey to put it out of reach. Smith Jr. took over for the Panthers during that run, as he was responsible for six of those 13 points. Andres Frye made it a six-point game after stealing an inbound pass and converting the layup with 5:57 to play, but that was as close as the Hornets would get as Ferrum would finish the last five minutes outscoring the Hornets 14-7.

KEY STATS
Ferrum: Smith Jr. 15 pts; Hall 14 pts; Madden-McAfee 12 pts, 10 reb, 5 ast; Young 3 pts, 9 reb
Shenandoah: Frye 15 pts, 6 reb; Garrett 14 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast; Smith 10 pts, 5 reb

BEHIND THE WHISTLE
"Great win today for our guys. I think we were shaking off some rust from our long layoff, but I felt like we responded well in the second half. We had some strong individual performances, especially offensively, which was nice to see. Defensively we have some things to clean up, but right now it's about surviving and advancing." --Head Coach Tyler Sanborn

ON TO THE NEXT
Coach Sanborn's squad will now await the result of the final Quarterfinal matchup between Eastern Mennonite University and University of Lynchburg, played at the University of Lynchburg Saturday, March 6 with a 7 p.m. tip. The Panthers will host the winner of that contest inside of Swartz Gymnasium Tuesday, March 9.