The Stetson Men's Basketball team advances to the ASUN Championship Semifinals after defeating Queens 83-71 Tuesday night. This was the Hatters first home ASUN Tournament win since the 2019-2020 season. This victory marks Stetson's first 20-win season since 1974-1975 when Dr. Glenn Wilkes was the Head Coach.
The Royals jumped out to a quick 2-5 lead, but the Hatters broke off a 10-0 run to take a 12-5 lead.
Aubin Gateretse started the run with an electrifying Alley-oop on a nice feed from
Stephan Swenson that got the fans in the Edmunds Center on their feet.
Jalen Blackmon then found the bottom of the net on a turnaround jumper before
Tristan Gross and
Alec Oglesby both drained threes. The teams then traded baskets and a Blackmon jumper was able to push the Stetson led to nine. The Royals started to chip away but Gross hit his second three of the game after great ball movement by the Hatters around the arc. Back-to-back buckets for Gateretse pushed the lead for Stetson back up to nine and Swenson increased the Hatter lead even higher a few minutes later where he laid it up in after forcing a steal making it 29-17. Queens didn't go away though as they chipped at the Hatters lead. Stetson went into halftime up 38-36 after a first half that felt like they were in control of in its entirety. The Hatter defense forced the Royals to commit multiple shot clock violation turnovers showcasing their pressure on the ball.
Gateretse opened the scoring for Stetson in the second half backing down his defender before and hitting the layup. With the Hatters now on defense Oglesby ripped the ball away from the Queens player setting up Gateretse to draw the shooting foul and hitting both layups. The Royals hit a three to make it a one-point game but the Hatters exploded on a 14-2 run giving them 13 point lead, their largest of the game. The bucket that gave the Hatters the 56-43 lead was an up and under reverse layup from Blackmon that had the crowd in awe.
Giancarlo Valdez had some big minutes for the Hatters. With the Royals starting to chip away Valdez laced one from beyond the arc putting Stetson back up by double digits. On the following possession Valdez got the feed from Blackmon, faked his shot and side stepped to the corner of the court and hit nothing but net to put the Hatters up 68-57. Queens once again started to close the gap and this time Blackmon hit from beyond the arc making it 73-62 with four minutes to go. The Royals still drew closer getting the Hatters' lead down to six, but Queens defense fell asleep, and Swenson streaked down the lane for a finger roll layup. Stetson was able to close out the game hitting their late game free throws to secure the 83-71 victory.
Blackmon tallied 21 points to lead the Hatters as he 8-11 from inside the arc on a night where his three-point shot wasn't falling. Gateretse tallied 20 points, going 8-9 from the field and grabbed six rebounds. Swenson tallied a double-double as he scored 10 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and added three assists. As a team Stetson shot 51.7% from the field, 28% from three and 93.3% from the free throw line. Neither team was able to shoot well from three Tuesday night and relied on working down low in the post with each team scoring 40 paint points.
The Hatters will remain in DeLand to host an ASUN Championship Semifinals game for the first time in program history, on Thursday, March 7 at 7pm. They will host #10 seed Jacksonville who upset #1 seed Eastern Kentucky.
