The Cougars (18-7, 9-3 USA South) will get the number two seed, by virtue of the tiebreaker, which CNU owns after defeating Averett last Saturday.
A pair of Averett seniors stepped up huge for the Cougars, as Billy Gardner and Sterling Williams combined 35 points in the contest. Williams led all scorers with 20, while Gardner added 15 points and four rebounds.
Averett never trailed in the contest and went on a huge run late in the half to create some cushion between them and the Bishops (8-17, 6-6 USA South). With a narrow 21-15 advantage with 10:53 to play, Averett embarked on a 20-5 spurt to claim 41-20 with 4:36 remaining. The Cougars went on to lead 48-29 at the half.
In the second half, the Bishops pulled to within 14 with 15:29 remaining, but Averett removed all doubt and outscored Wesleyan 24-10 over the next nine minutes to grab their largest lead of the game at 79-51.
Averett’s defenders really did a number on Wesleyan’s Lenny Hall and Jarmel Arrington, the team’s two leading scorers. They combined for 10-for-30 shooting on the night and 29 points. The Bishops shot only 38 percent from the field and turned the ball over 21 times.
The Cougars scored on 28-of-69 shots for 40 percent and connected on seven 3-pointers. Cory McDaniel complemented the two Averett seniors with 16 points. Drew Boor added seven points and seven boards, while Rafael DeLeon added nine points and five rebounds.
Averett will be the number two seed for the conference tournament and will host the seventh seeded Hornets from Shenandoah on Tuesday in the Grant Center at 7:30 p.m. The winner of that game will move on to the semifinals, which will be hosted by CNU in Newport News, VA.