CEDARVILLE, Ohio –The third time was a charm for the Trevecca (11-16) men's basketball team as they defeated Central State (17-10) 79-75 Friday night in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championship Semifinal inside the Callan Athletic Center on the campus of Cedarville University.

The Marauders had previously defeated the Trojans in two earlier meeting during the regular season.

Freshman Nick Drake tied for a game-high with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting including 3-of-6 from three-point range. Marquise Rudolph and Peyton Henry each scored 15 and combined to hit seven 3-pointers. J.P. Nyadaro recorded a double-double with 14 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. He also blocked four shots.

Lee Tabb led CSU with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds. Charles McNeal was 9-of-10 from the field and scored 19 while  Demarkus Isom-Jones tallied 18 points.

In the first half, both teams were efficient offensively as Central State hit 15-of-31(48.4%) from the field while Trevecca was 14-of-31 (45.2%) from the floor.  There were five ties and five lead changes as well.

Trevecca had a pair of six-point leads in the first half after a Nick Drake reverse layup brought the score to 15-9 with 13:48 left. The other was a three-point shot by Maliek Daniels pushing the Trojan lead to 20-14 with 12:07 remaining.  Peyton Henry led TNU with nine points on three 3-pointers in the first half.

The Marauders would use a 5-0 run with five minutes remaining to take a 27-26 lead. Charles McNeal scored a layup and Demarkus Isom-Jones drained a shot from downtown to give Central State its first lead since they held a 3-2 advantage. Isom-Jones tallied 11 points in the first half to lead CSU.

The second half would be as similar as the first. Both teams battled back and forth until Central State gained a five-point advantage (67-62) after an Isom-Jones three-pointer with 7:27 remaining.

TNU would take a slim one-point lead (71-70) after a Rudolph jumper but that would be followed by a Tabb dunk which put CSU back up by one (72-71) with 3:22 left.

After a free throw from LeDonte Body tied the game again at 73, Henry would give the Trojans a lead it would never relinquish draining a three-pointer from the right wing putting TNU up 76-73.

Christopher Elliott added two free throws at the end to give the final margin (79-75).

Trevecca was outstanding from the three-point line shooting 11-of-22 (50%) for the game and hitting 49.1% (28-of-57) overall.  Central State was just 6-of-20 (30%) from deep range.

The win puts Trevecca in the G-MAC Tournament Final against either host school Cedarville (18-8) or Urbana (10-19) tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Clayton Coffman will have an audio broadcast of the championship game that can be found here: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/trevecca.portal#