The Monarchs, the USA South regular season champion and top seed in the tournament, improves to 16-9 overall. The Monarchs will play the winner of the Christopher Newport/North Carolina Wesleyan matchup. Should Christopher Newport win, the semfinal game will be at 6 p.m. on Friday, but a North Carolina Wesleyan victory would put the game at 8 p.m.
Methodist built a 12-point lead early in the game, but the opportunistic Cougars made a game of it in the first half with a 12-1 run during a five-minute span to tie the game. Sterling Williams and Cory Williams started the rally with consecutive 3-point basket at the 8:50 mark to cut the lead to 20-14, and Williams followed with a 3-point play to make the score 20-17 with 6:54 remaining.
Methodist’s Seth Thomas stopped the Averett rally with a free throw with 4:41 remaining, but the Cougars’ Jerrod Harris tied the game at 21-21 on a jump shot at the 4:22 mark.
That’s when Methodist finished the half with an 11-2 run. Jordan Snipes ignited the rally with two straight jump shots, and a Sam Porter jump shot with 1:04 remaining increased the Monarch lead to 31-22.
Methodist scored the first seven points of the second half to take control of the game. Averett was able to stay within 14 points briefly, but the Monarchs answered with a 13-4 run to lead by 26 points. Eddie Lamar’s 3-point basket at the 11:28 mark gave Methodist a 53-29 lead, and Dragan Radmanovic increased it to 55-29 with a jump shot with 10:53 remaining.
Guard Robert Lee gave Methodist its largest lead of the game, 74-39 on a jump shot at the 3:52 mark.
Seth Thomas paced a balanced Methodist scoring attack with 13 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double as 11 Monarchs scored points. Snipes, a freshman guard, scored a career-high 12 points, while Porter recorded his 10th double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Radmanovic and center Arthur Hatch each added nine points.
For Averett (0-25), Williams scored 13 points.