HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Logan was No. 0 at the start of the season. It is now one game away from being No. 1.
Rallying from a six-point second half deficit, the top-seeded Volunteers stopped No. 12 Tallahassee 94-89 Friday in Hutchinson Sports Arena to earn a spot in Saturday’s NJCAA Division I title game.
Logan will meet Northwest Florida State — who defeated Indian Hills, 79-75, in the other semifinals game — at 1 p.m. Saturday in a game that will air on ESPNU.
“The job’s not finished,” said guard Curt Lewis, who scored a team-high 27 points. “We’ve got one more game to win.”
Logan (32-2) earned its 30th straight win despite serious foul trouble and a combined 57 points from the Eagles’ best players, Malachi Davis and Addison Patterson. Davis scored a game-high 31 and Patterson, who was suspended for the team’s first three games of the tournament after being ejected from their regional final, came off the bench for 26 points.
But the Vols found a way, just like they did in Thursday’s 74-70 decision over Midland. KJ Debrick put them ahead for good on a putback with 1:51 left for an 85-84 edge and James Dent drilled three foul shots with 1:21 remaining – the second time he was fouled shooting a 3 in the last five minutes – to make it 88-84.
Debrick added two more foul shots with 26.2 ticks on the clock to make it 90-87, but Davis made two with 9.4 seconds left to cut the lead to 90-89. After a Tallahassee timeout, Dent was grabbed on the inbounds pass and calmly swished two shots to restore a three-point lead.
Dent finished with 17 points off the bench, going 10-of-10 at the line. In the tournament, he’s 20-of-21 at the stripe and averaging 17 ppg.
“I told him, ‘JD, bring us home.’ And that’s what he did,” Lewis said.
There was still the matter of getting one last stop against a team that made nearly 50% of its shots from the field and canned 24-of-26 at the line. But the Eagles (31-6) never got off a shot because Lewis stole a lazy diagonal pass near midcourt and fed Justin Cross for the game-clinching dunk with 1.9 seconds remaining.
“We caused turnovers with our defense,” said Logan coach Tyler Smithpeters. “Justin didn’t let Malachi get off a 3-pointer. And then they turned it over off the side out of bounds. Our guys kept our composure even when they got tough calls. That’s what happens when you have an experienced group.”
Neither team led by more than six points in a game that featured 18 lead changes and nine ties. Tallahassee used its length and athleticism to consistently get good looks but the Vols countered by converting 10-of-22 from the 3-point line.
Lewis, who was hampered in Logan’s first two games by foul trouble and leg cramps, respectively, had no such worries in this one. He scored 16 in the first half to keep them within 41-40 at the break, then scored 13 in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
“It was his day,” Smithpeters said of Lewis, the team’s leading scorer entering the tournament. “That’s what makes us so tough to guard. We’ve got so many guys that can go off.”
Down the stretch, it was the Vols’ balance that carried the day. Isaiah Stafford scored 16, the last 3 coming with 2:24 left for a short-lived 83-82 edge. Debrick delivered nine key points after not scratching in the first half and Cross added eight off the bench.
Logan made all 14 foul shots in the second half to end the game at 20-of-23. It took 12 more field goals than the Eagles because it forced 17 turnovers. And in a contest where Tallahassee shot a higher percentage and won nearly every specialty stat, getting extra shots paid off.
And now the Vols get one shot at their first national title after starting the season outside the Top 25.