March 28, 2006
Box Score
NEW YORK (AP) - Courtney Sims scored 18 points to help Michigan beat Old Dominion 66-43 on Tuesday night and advance to the NIT championship game for the second time in three years.
Michigan (22-10) ended the run of one of the two Colonial Athletic Association teams that were still playing in the postseason. George Mason is in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament and will face Florida on Saturday.
The Wolverines will play South Carolina in the championship game on Thursday night.
Trailing 21-14 with 12:14 left in the first half, Michigan held the Monarchs without a field goal for the rest of the half. The Wolverines outscored the Monarchs 19-3 over that stretch, highlighted by Sims' two-handed dunk that made it 31-24. Sims scored eight points during the run.
Brian Henderson ended the drought for the Monarchs (24-10) with a 3-pointer 1:12 into the second half. He made three straight 3s to get the Monarchs within 35-33, but the Wolverines responded with a 13-5 run to take command of the game. Brent Petway capped the spurt with a two-handed alley-oop dunk that gave Michigan a 48-38 lead.
Old Dominion would get no closer than eight the rest of the way as Michigan ended the game on a 18-5 run.
The Wolverines held Old Dominion's leading scorer Isaiah Hunter to just two points. He was 1-for-15 from the field, including going 1-for-10 in the first half. Old Dominion shot a season-low 28 percent from the field.
Henderson led the Monarchs with 11 points and Drew Williamson added 10.
ODU played the entire second half without 6-7 junior forward ArnaudDahi, due to a sprained right knee. All-CAA forward Alex Loughton waslimited because of a sprained left ankle from the Hofstra game.
Daniel Horton scored 10 points for Michigan, which beat Miami 71-65 to advance to the semifinals. The Wolverines' last trip to New York ended with the 2004 NIT title, the third in school history. Michigan is 7-1 in the NIT semifinals and finals.
This year's tournament was the first under the control of the NCAA, which purchased the rights to the preseason and postseason NITs in August as part of a settlement that ended a four-year legal fight between the two parties.
Loughton completed his career at ODU with 1642 points which ranks himtenth all-time at ODU. He finished with 952 career rebounds and movedup to sixth all-time at ODU. Isaiah Hunter finished his career with1,425 which ranks him 17th.