Box Score Box Score

THE RUNDOWN
TULSA, Okla. – The St. Edward's men's basketball team advanced to the Heartland Conference Tournament semifinals with a 71-62 win over No. 3 seed Newman (14-14) Friday at the Union Multipurpose Activity Center.
 
Free throws were the story for the Hilltoppers (18-11) as they had season highs in makes (36) and attempts (48), which helped the team overcome a 16-for-46 performance from the floor. LANDON GOESLING had 20 points and set the single-season Heartland Conference record for free throws in a season with his seventh of 12 made. DORIAN LOPEZ had 11 points and nine boards, narrowly missing his 11^th double-double of the season.
 
COREY SHERVILL's pair of free throws with 5:20 remaining in the first half broke an 18-all tie and gave SEU the lead for good. In a scrappy game with 55 combined fouls, Newman was never able to regain the lead. The closest the Jets came in the final minutes was six points when Dametrius Walker hit a 3-pointer with 2:04 remaining to cut the lead to six points at 59-53. Walker and Kevin Bryant scored 16 points apiece in the loss for Newman
 
As the No. 6 seed, St. Edward's will face No. 7 Oklahoma Christian, who upset the No. 2 seed UAFS 88-78 Thursday, at 5 p.m. Saturday.
 

HIGHLIGHTS
• LANDON GOESLING put up 20 points to score in double-digits for the 28^th time this season and the 37^th time in his career.
• Goesling set the Heartland Conference's single-season record for free-throws made with his seventh of 12. The seventh free throw was No. 218 on the season, which passed a 14-year old record set by Chris Mortellaro (217, Drury, 2003-04).
• Goesling's second point was the 900^th of his career (73 with Appalachian State).
• JAMES TAYLOR finished the game with 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting; it was Taylor's first career postseason game with double figures, the 45^th career game overall with 10 or more and his 20^th of the season.
• Taylor's second point was the 800^th of his career.
• DORIAN LOPEZ scored 12 points on a 3-of-8 performance from the floor; it was Lopez's 36^th career game and 22^nd of the season to score 10 or more.
• Lopez had nine rebounds which gave him an even 400 for his career (170 at Oklahoma Christian).
• SEAN WATKINS had 11 points including a 4-for-4 performance at the free-throw line; he has 34 career games with double-digit scoring and 18 in 2017-18.
• CORY MCKENDREE had six points and eight boards off the bench.
• SEU is 8-6 all-time in the Heartland Conference Tournament
 
STAT OF THE GAME I
14 – St. Edward's grabbed 10 offensive boards in the contest and turned those into 14 second-chance points.
 
THEY SAID IT
SEU Head Coach Andre Cook on getting the elusive win over Newman in the season's third meeting …
"It clearly looked like two teams that were battling for a third time. Newman's beaten us twice, both games by two points in tough knock out, drag out type games. And, this looked like obviously a tournament game for the third time. I thought if we could win three areas then we would have a good chance to win the basketball game. If we could win the turnover battle, we'd have a good chance. 17 turnovers for Newman, 10 for us. I thought if we could win the free-throw battle that would be a good thing. We had 48 free throws they had 21. I thought if we could win the rebound battle that would be a positive. So, those three areas, and that was 33-33. So, 2.5 wins there and it wasn't aesthetically pleasing, it was rough and tumble but we got the job done and we get to move on winning."
 
SEU junior guard LANDON GOESLING on strategically getting to the foul line …
"I think it starts with coach instilling a mind set in us to just do what we do. And, that's been something that's worked for me and the team this year is getting to the foul line. I was kind of struggling a little early and coach just kind of gave me a little pep talk, and just told me to keep doing what I do and keep attacking the basket. So, that's what I did in the second half and so I was able to get to the foul line a little bit."
 
SEU senior guard SEAN WATKINS on the defensive effort …
"We really wanted to focus on our defense this game. We were saying before the game if we can lock in for 40 minutes and play defense and finish with rebounds like coach was saying, we're a tough team to beat, especially offensively. We can hit shots, we feel like we have really good shooters, so if we can just play defense and finish rebounds we feel like we had a pretty good chance."
 
WHAT'S NEXT
St. Edward's advances to the Heartland Conference Tournament semifinals Saturday at 5 p.m. where the Hilltoppers will take on No. 7 seed Oklahoma Christian.