UPPER MARLBORO, MD ‘ Jernavis Draughn scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead American (18-12) to a 65-55 win over ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ in the semifinal round of the Patriot League Tournament Sunday night at the Show Place Arena.
¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ (15-14) had advanced to the semifinal round for the first time since the 2000 tournament.
Other American players in double figures were Andres Rodriguez with 15 points and Raimondas Petrauskas with 11.
Alvin Reed led ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ with 18 points, while Howard Blue added 12 points and five rebounds. Blue moved into 16th place on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,201 points in his final collegiate game.
The score was tied at halftime, 25-25, before American scored the first 12 points of the second half to take control of the contest. ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ would battle back to within three points, 46-43 with 8:09 left, with an eight-point run but that was as close as they would come. The Eagles immediately answered ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ’s eight-point run with one of their own to move back into an 11-point lead with under seven minutes left. The Raiders did managed to cut the defict to four points, 59-55, with 58 seconds left.
In the first half, ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ fell behind by five points in the earlier minutes, 9-4. The Raiders battled back to take a couple of leads before American moved back in front, 20-16. A nine-point run for ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ with Reed scoring five points and Blue four gave the Raiders a 25-20 lead with 0:00 remaining. The Eagles scored the final five points of the first half to tie the contest 25-25 at halftime.