PEORIA, Ill. ? Old Dominion sophomore forward Frank Hassell turned in a double-double with 18 points and a career-best 15 rebounds, leading the visiting Monarchs (25-10) to the championship of the inaugural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament with a 66-62 win at Bradley (21-15) Wednesday night at Carver Arena.
Aided by Hassell's nine offensive rebounds, Old Dominion outrebounded Bradley, 42-35, and turned 18 offensive boards into a 25-15 advantage in second chance points. Junior guard Marsharee Neely added 16 points and junior center Gerald Lee chipped in with 13 points for the Monarchs. Bradley was led by junior guard Chris Roberts, who made all six of his field goal attempts from inside the arc, and finished with 15 points. Sophomore guard Sam Maniscalco added 12 points, five rebounds and five assists and senior forward Theron Wilson chipped in 11 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and two steals in his final college game.
Bradley jumped out to a nine-point lead, 18-9, by making three of its first four 3-point field goal attempts, but the Braves could not sustain their perimeter success against a tough Old Dominion zone. Bradley, which came into the championship shooting 48.3 percent (28-58) from 3-point range in the first three rounds of the CIT, missed its next 16 attempts from behind the arc and finished 4-for-22 (.182) for the game.
After the teams played to a 28-28 tie at the intermission, the lead changed hands four times before Old Dominion took control with a 13-2 run that gave the Monarchs a 48-37 lead with 10:23 remaining. ODU still led 55-47 after a Keyon Carter layup with 5:24 left before Bradley made one final charge.
The Braves twice pulled to within two points, 55-53, on a Wilson putback with 3:29 remaining and 57-55 on a Sam Singh jumper with 1:29 left. In between, Neeley scored a second-chance bucket, then Lee scored inside with 1:15 left to again give the Monarchs a four-point cushion, 59-55. Darius James then stole an Eddren McCain entry pass on Bradley's next possession. After Hassell split a pair of free throws for a 60-55 lead with 46 seconds left, the Braves could not pull closer than four points the rest of the way.
By averaging 13.5 points and 11.3 rebounds with three straight double-doubles in the tournament's four games, Hassell was named the Most Valuable Player for the inaugural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. He was joined on the seven-player all-tournament team by fellow Monarchs Lee and Neely; the Bradley trio of Maniscalco, Roberts and Wilson; and Oakland guard Erik Kangas.
