After blitzing the No. 2 seed in Sunday's quarterfinals, Roane State's seventh-seeded Lady Raiders had to go the distance and then some to knock out the No. 3 seed.
Roane edged Chattanooga State 41-40 in overtime in the last semifinal Monday in the TCCAA/NJCAA Region VII basketball tournament at Chattanooga State.
The Lady Raiders (16-17) will play today at 4 p.m. against usual champion Walters State (27-5), which topped fifth seed Cleveland State 65-44 in the first women's semifinal. Today's winner will advance to the NJCAA Division I national tournament.
The sixth-seeded Cleveland State men lost 62-52 to No. 2 seed Motlow State, which plays at 2 against top-seeded Southwest Tennessee for a trip to Hutchinson, Kan. Southwest defeated fourth seed Walters 79-70 in Monday's first game.
The last game was a battle throughout. Chattanooga State (20-11), which had won 11 of its last 13, led 12-6 after the first quarter and 21-15 after another. But Roane scored 13 to the Lady Tigers' eight in the third quarter and outscored them by 9-8 in the fourth.
Cinthia Mbakop Ngassam had 17 points and 11 rebounds for Roane, which shot only 25.8 percent from the field (16-of-62) and hit nine of 18 free throws compared to 25.5 percent (14-of-55) and nine of 13 for the all-freshman Lady Tigers. Shanice Nelson had 18 points and three steals in defeat, and Lucy Edosomah had 10 rebounds.
Former Baylor School standout Abby Hubert ended her All-TCCAA career at Cleveland State (16-11) with 19 points featuring five 3-point baskets against the top-seeded Lady Senators. Julia Gaither added 10 points and four assists for the Lady Cougars, who trailed 20-8 after one quarter, 42-20 at halftime and 54-25 after three periods but showed their grit with a 19-11 final quarter.
TCCAA player of the year Sara Vujacic scored 17 points with five 3s of her own for Walters State, and Gazmyne Herndon had nine assists, seven rebounds and three steals with eight points. Oneisha Turner had four steals with her eight points.
The Walters men had three players end their season with 13 points against the Saluqis: Elijah Cooper, Miles Thomas and Malik McConnell, Cooper adding seven rebounds. But Xavier Davenport had 18 points and nine rebounds for Southwest Tennessee, and Carlos Marshall and Michael Littlejohn scored 12 and 11 points.
Rashawn Fredericks, the TCCAA player of the year, scored 17 points and Isaiah Hart had 16 plus four steals for Motlow's Bucks against Cleveland State, and Kevonte Corley had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Leonard Castillo added 10 points. For the Cougars, ending their season 15-12, Cam Copeland and Tevin Olison scored 17 and 15 points with five and three 3-pointers.