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Then there were four. Guilford College has reached the semifinals of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament for the third time since 2009 and will collide with Old Dominion Athletic Conference rival Hampden-Sydney College (Va.) March 14 in Fort Wayne, Ind.
The No. 7 Quakers (26-4) advanced with a thrilling 50-48 win over No. 23 Christopher Newport College (Va.) in the sectional finals March 9 at home. Fifth-year guard Tyler Dearman, NABC First Team All-American and the ODAC Player of the Year, hit a layup – his only field goal of the game – with 2.3 seconds remaining for the victory.
Winning the sectional set up a semifinal contest for Guilford with No. 1-ranked Hampden-Sydney at 5:30 pm ET Thursday. The game will be livestreamed at NCAA.com.
The Tigers are coached by Caleb Kimbrough ’08, who was a four-year starting guard for the Quakers and then coached with Tom Palombo six seasons. Guilford won the teams’ only meeting this season 80-71 Dec. 2 in Greensboro.
In the other semifinal, No. 13 Trine University (Ind.) (27-4) will play No. 3 Trinity College (Conn.) (30-1) at 8 pm. The semifinal winners will meet in the championship final March 16 at 4 pm.
The final two rounds of the 64-team tournament are at Allen County Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne.
Burch Leads Quakers in Sectional Final
Fifth-year forward Julius Burch led Guilford to the win over Christopher Newport, the defending national champion, scoring 21 points and collecting 9 rebounds. Junior guard Luke Proctor had 11 points and Dearman, 5, including the game-winner, and a team-high 12 rebounds.
The Quakers routed No. 5 Keene State College (N.H.) 82-60 in the third round, led by Dearman with 27 points and Burch with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
For the season, Dearman averages 20 ppg and 5 rpg and Burch, 11 ppg and 10 rpg.
Brazil Paces Tigers in Sectional Final
Senior guard Adam Brazil scored 22 points to lead Hampden-Sydney to a 68-60 win over No. 19 Nebraska Wesleyan University in the sectional finals at home March 9. Senior guard Josiah Hardy scored a career-high 20 points to pace the Tigers to a 91-76 win over Rowan University (N.J.) in the third round March 8.
For the season, senior forward Davidson Hubbard is averaging a team-high 15 ppg and 7 rpg.
Hampden-Sydney’s only losses are to Guilford and conference foe Randolph-Macon College, 48-46 at home Feb. 3. The Tigers have won 11 straight games since then.
For the Record
- Guilford is 20-6 in seven NCAA Tournament appearances – all under Palombo since 2006. The Quakers reached the semifinals in 2009 and 2010 (winning the third-place game in 2009). They lost in the sectional finals in 2007 and 2019. The College competed in the NAIA until 1991 and won the 1973 national championship in one of multiple trips to Kansas City.
- Palombo is 398-163 in 21 seasons at Guilford and has won more than 600 games in 33 years as a collegiate head coach.
- Hampden-Sydney was 1-1 in the NCAA Tournament last year and is making its first semifinal appearance since 2003 (third overall). The Tigers were national runners-up in 1999.
- Kimbrough is 108-77 in eight seasons as a collegiate head coach, including 82-27 in five years with the Tigers. Carson Long '19 has been on Kimbrough's staff as an assistant coach the past two years.
- Hampden-Sydney has a 38-25 edge in the all-time series with Guilford dating to the Quakers’ entry into Division III and the ODAC in 1991. Guilford has a 21-8 record against the Tigers since 2006, including wins in the last two contests and five of the last eight.
- This is the second time the ODAC has placed two teams in the national semifinals in the same year. In 2010, Guilford and Randolph-Macon were there but did not play one another.
- All four of this year’s national semifinalists played their first four games at home.
Other Teams in the Semifinals
Trinity defeated No. 10 Calvin University (Mich.) 69-62 March 9 in the sectional finals at home to advance to the NCAA semifinals. The Bantams have won 10 straight games and are in the semifinals for the first time since 1995.
Trine defeated No. 11 University of Wisconsin-Platteville on a last-second shot 88-86 (OT) March 9 in the sectional finals at home. The Thunder is competing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time.