After trailing 35-33 at the half the Tartans came out in the second half taking the 47-44 advantage off a three pointer by senior Jason Walters (Providence, RI/Country Day) with 15:11 to play and never trailed again. The Tartans led as much as 15 with 7:30 to play and the Blazers just wouldn’t go away as they fought back. Hood would pull within six points, but that is all the closer they would get as Tartans went on to the 88-80 victory.
The Tartans had five players in double figures; junior Clayton Barlow-Wilcox (Brookline, MA/Brookline) led all Tartan scorers with 21 points and pulled in 12 reboards for his first double-double of the year. Junior A.J. Straub (St. Mary’s, PA/Elk County Catholic) cashed in with 17 hitting four from behind the three-point arc, senior Eliot Goren (Silver Spring, MD/Bullis School) had 16, junior transfer Nate Maurer (Pittsburgh, PA/Linsley School) added 13, and Walters ended with 12 points.
Hood was led by sophomore Santo Provenzano who led all scores with 29 points while sophomore David Wilson added 18 for the Blazers.
Carnegie Mellon had the edge on the class 39-38 and on turnovers committing 15 to Hood’s 26. The two teams combined to shoot 64 foul shots as the Tartans made 25 to the Blazers 18.
The Tartans will face Westminster College in the Championship game of the Ramada Plaza Suites / Carnegie Mellon Invitational Sunday November 28 at 3:00pm. The Titans of Westminster defeated the Rams of Framingham State 121-110. The 231 points scored were the most ever between to team in the history of the Invitational. Westminster was led by junior Mark DeMonaco who had a game high 33 points and six assists. Framingham State was led by junior Ralph Sully who had 22 points and nine rebounds. The Rams will face Hood in he consolation game Sunday at 1:00pm.