JACKSONVILLE, Ill. - The third-seeded Westminster College Blue Jays limited the No. 2 Greenville College (Ill.) Panthers to a season-low output and a dreadful 28-percent (25-of-91) shooting effort in Thursday night's 101-83 semifinal win in the SLIAC postseason tournament.
Westminster College (11-15) advanced to the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship at 1 p.m. Saturday at host MacMurray College. The Blue Jays - who last won the tournament title in 2012 - will face the winner of Thursday night's late semifinal between top-seeded MacMurray and No. 4 Spalding (Ky.) University.
The Blue Jays split with MacMurray and swept Spalding during the regular season.
Greenville College - which averaged 114 points per game during the regular season - finished with a 13-13 record.
Westminster was only up 36-34 going into halftime Thursday night, but established control by outscoring the Panthers 65-49 in the second half. Greenville closed within 84-74 with 4 minutes, 12 seconds to play, but the Blue Jays answered with a 10-0 run to pull away.
Freshman guard Dominick Erby made a pair of free throws with 2:25 left to extend Westminster's advantage to 94-74.
Freshman guard Carter Wands came up with 17 points to direct seven players in double figures for the Blue Jays, who shot 53 percent (35-of-66) as a team and outscored the Panthers by a decisive 50-16 in the paint. Sophomore forwards Nick Carlos and Romo Tabb, and freshman forward Stu Hollandsworth added 14 points apiece, Erby and sophomore guard Jimmy Villalobos chipped in with 11 apiece, and sophomore guard Tanner Cochran had 10.
Villalobos collected a game-high 11 rebounds to help power Westminster to a 56-51 edge on the boards.
Daniel Saeli came off the bench to pace four players in double figures with a game-high 19 points for Greenville. Kenny Greene was next with 11 points and Michael Hohm and Tim Daniel finished with 10 apiece.