Led by 17 points and 14 rebounds from Southern States Athletic Conference newcomer of the year Carnilious Simmons, NAIA Division I's No. 3 ranked Dalton State basketball tournament reached today's semifinals in the league tournament in Montgomery, Ala., with a 73-67 win Thursday against Middle Georgia State. All-SSAC second-team selection Sayvon Williams scored 14 points, J'Quayveon Williams had 11 points and eight rebounds and Mike Harden added 10 points for the Roadrunners (25-4), who play Martin Methodist at 4 p.m. EST today. DSC point guard Isaiah Box joined fellow junior Simmons on the All-SSAC first team. Simmons had team-high averages of 14.89 points, 9.96 rebounds and 1.61 blocked shots per game for the regular season - the blocks average also leading the SSAC - and Box had a league-high 2.04 steals per game. Middle Georgia's Kieston Standfield, the SSAC player of the year, had 23 points, 19 rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks Thursday.
Track & Field
- Lee University's Justin Brooks is one of the 17 men's 400-meter entries in the NCAA Division II indoor national track and field meet next week in Birmingham, at the CrossPlex facility where he earned provisional qualifying status. He is the first Lee athlete to qualify for the Division II indoor nationals. The 400 preliminaries are set for 6:20 p.m. EST Thursday, and the final is March 11 at 4:45.
Softball
- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team takes a 5-9 record into its fourth of six consecutive tournament weekends, this one the Citrus Classic II (Diamond 9) Invitational at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando, Fla. The Mocs face Bryant at 1:15 p.m. and Florida International at 5:45 today, Boston College at 2:45 and UNC Charlotte at 5 on Saturday and Notre Dame at 10 a.m. Sunday. Charlotte is 13-4, FIU is 11-5 and Boston College is 8-7.