James Madison shot a blistering 62.5% from the field and made 11 of 19 three-point attempts as it beat Arkansas State for the second time on the season and secured a trip to the NCAA Tournament with a 91-71 win over the Red Wolves in the men's championship game of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Monday night at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Fla.
Xavier Brown scored all of his career-high 21 points in the first half as he sparked the Dukes (31-3). Noah Freidel picked up where Brown left off, making two three-pointers and scoring all 12 of his points in the second half. Sun Belt Player of the Year Terrence Edwards Jr. finished with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting.
One day after an emotional last-second 67-65 win over top-seeded Appalachian State, Arkansas State (18-16) struggled shooting the ball in the title game. The Red Wolves shot 35.6% from the field and 28% on three-point attempts.
"I thought they were good on both sides of the ball for 40 minutes and they have been for the majority of the season," ASU first-year Coach Bryan Hodgson said of James Madison. "It's not easy to win 31 games at any level and they obviously did that. We really let Xavier Brown get going in that first half, which gave them some confidence."
After hitting the game-winning shot in the semifinals against the Mountaineers, Freddy Hicks III led the Red Wolves with 24 points and seven rebounds Monday night. Izaiyah Nelson had with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks. Derrian Ford also finished with 12 points, while Caleb Fields and Taryn Todd each added 10 points.
Arkansas State took its first lead of the game at 18-17 on an alley-oop dunk by Nelson that was assisted by Fields at the 11:27 mark of the first half.
The lead would be short-lived as Brown went on a personal 13-5 scoring run to put the Dukes up 30-23 with 6:14 remaining in the first half. Brown entered the game averaging 6.1 points per game on the season, but he put on an impressive shooting display in the first 20 minutes, hitting 5 of 6 three-pointers.
"Xavier Brown was in some kind of zone and I think everybody just wanted to stay away from him," James Madison Coach Mark Byington said. "He was on fire. His speed, his aggressiveness, his shots just got us going. You talk about being ready for a moment on a big stage."
James Madison led 42-32 at the half. Aside from the early heroics of Brown, Jaylen Carey chipped in 11 points in the opening half and finished with 15 on the night. Ford has eight points at the break to lead the Red Wolves.
The hot shooting continued for the Dukes as the game moved into the second half. Freidel made two three-pointers in the opening minutes of the half, including one in which he was fouled and converted a four-point play to extend the James Madison lead to 51-36 at the 17:20 mark.
Hicks buried a three with 14:43 remaining to pull Arkansas State within 56-44, but that was as close as it would get as the Red Wolves went cold shooting the ball and couldn't get stops on the defensive end.
A jump shot from Edwards with 5:37 left gave the Dukes their largest lead of the game at 85-58.
James Madison picked up its NCAA-leading 31st win of the season and will be making its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2013 when it defeated Long Island 68-55 before losing to Indiana 83-62 in the second round. Arkansas State has not made the NCAA Tournament since 1999.
"I'm just super proud of this group," Hodgson said. "A group of guys that was picked to finish ninth in the league. Finished 13th in the league last year. Had a rough start and climbed our way all the way back to be the four seed and get a double-bye in this tournament and fight our way to the championship. Only two teams got to play today and [we] were one of those two. I'm proud of that."