GREENVILLE, Ill. - The No. 2 seed Westminster Blue Jays knocked down 13 3-pointers to ease past No. 3 Webster University 75-61 in the semifinals of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postseason tournament Friday night.
Westminster College (19-8) won its second straight SLIAC tournament title against host and top-seeded Greenville College in Saturday night's championship. The Blue Jays beat Greenville 128-121 and earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III national tournament.
Greenville outlasted No. 4 seed Principia (Illinois) College in a 120-114 shootout in Friday night's other semifinal.
The Blue Jays - who split their meetings with Webster during the regular season - were tied with the Gorloks at 31-all at halftime Friday night.
Westminster trailed Webster 55-54 with 9 minutes, 27 seconds remaining in the game when it took control behind a 21-4 run, fueled by 17 points from junior guard Tanner Cochran. The outburst set the Blue Jays up with a 75-59 advantage with 1:06 left.
Cochran connected on seven 3-pointers in tallying a game-high 25 points as Westminster shot 52 percent (29-of-56) as a team, including 59 percent (13-of-22) from behind the arc. Sophomore guard Collin Caywood added 18 points, all a product of six 3s.
"Collin Caywood got hot and kept us in the game, and Tanner Cochran got hot late to put the game away," Westminster head coach Matt Mitchell.
Cochran and junior forward Romo Tabb collected five rebounds apiece to help the Blue Jays take a 35-29 edge on the boards.
"This was a great team win," Mitchell said. "I'm very impressed with our guys - we haven't played well the last two weeks and we maintained our confidence (and) kept working together."
Evan Milligan topped Webster (14-12) - which shot 42 percent (25-of-60) from the field - with 15 points. Rabasa Dobbins-Turner provided 13 points and CJ Moore contributed 10.