February 26, 2008 --- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  

SMC Hoops Hope For Tournament Titles 

Men Going Into Tournament With Best Season Record In Seven Years 

SPARTANBURG – Spartanburg Methodist College’s men’s and women’s basketball teams both hope to close the deal on a successful bid for a Region X tournament title this weekend in Wilmington, NC, following the best seasons both teams have seen in several years. 

Both the men’s and the women’s tournament are being held at Cape Fear Community College. 

Following a 74-68 victory at home over Denmark Technical College on Monday, the men’s team goes into the Region X men’s tournament as the No. 2 seed and with its best season record (22-7, 14-5) in seven years. 

The men’s team opens the tournament on  Thursday, Feb. 28 at 6 pm against Roanoke-Chowan Community College, a team the Pioneers beat handily 113-75 this past weekend. 

“Our success this season is largely due to our sophomore leadership. They been really solid down the stretch,” says head coach Rob Burke. 

“The entire team has done a great job as far as taking care of business. We closed out the season the way we expected to,” he adds. 

The Pioneer men won five of their last six games - two by at least 38 points following a 71-61 loss to USC Salkehatchie on Feb. 18. 

“That was a bad loss for us – we should have won that. But we’ve put our work in and have a lot of momentum going into the tournament. We hope to reap the benefits of that. It’s all about trying taking care of business,” says Burke. 

The team’s eight sophomores each went to the Region X tournament last year; and Burke says he will be looking to them to help motivate and lead the team in this year’s tournament. 

“We’re going to look to those guys, especially Anthony (Middleton), since they’ve been there and they know what it’s like. Our confidence is pretty good. We can’t really ask them to do anymore. There is a degree of luck involved but we’ll just have to be good for four games,” says Burke. 

On 26 games for this season, Middleton, from Lake Marion, SC, averaged 8.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.7 blocks per game. For his 53 career games at SMC, Middleton has led the team to 44 wins - scoring 450 points and 423 rebounds.

The SMC men were defeated in the semi-final round of the 2007 Region X tournament by Aiken Tech, the No. 1 region seed and a team that the Pioneers lost to in both of their meetings this season. 

Most recently, the Pioneers gave up a 10 point lead at home against Aiken Tech in the last four minutes of the game. But Burke says his team is ready to take them on again.

“We feel like we can beat Aiken Tech. We just need to make sure when we get ahead (in any of the tournament games) that we maintain it,” says Burke.

 Women Only Two Games From Region X Women’s Title

The women’s team routed Denmark Tech Monday night with a 107-58 win, posting its best season record in more than five years (19-10, 15-3) and earning the No. 2 seed for the Region X women’s tournament. 

The Lady Pioneers go into the tournament with a two-game bye; they will only have to play two games to win the women’s tournament. 

They will play at 1 pm Saturday against either Clinton Junior College or the winner of the Denmark Technical College – Brunswick Community College game. 

“We feel pretty good because of the way we have played the last few games,” says head coach Ralph Patin. 

The Lady Pioneers have won 11 of their last 12 games, with 76-56 loss on Feb. 9 to Louisburg Community College.  SMC finished in second at the Region X tournament last year with Louisburg taking the title.  

“We have a tremendous amount of momentum going into the tournament. Our freshman have been a little shaky at times this season, but they’ve shown that they’re tough competitors and they’re very talented,” says Patin. 

He says the team will be looking at sophomores India Belton, of Blythewood, SC, and Erica Caldwell, of Columbia, SC, as their lead players in the tournament. 

Caldwell is averaging in the high 20s in points, while shooting 64 percent from the free throw line, 50 percent from the field at 45 percent from the three-point line. Belton is averaging in the low 20s in points and shooting 32 percent from the three-point line, 38 percent from the field, at 57 percent from the free-throw line. 

“When they’re having bad nights, we tend to struggle a little more. But we’ll be leaning on them to help us put up the big numbers,” says Patin. 

Patin says that while the team suffered some disappointing losses early on in the season – most notably a 70-65 loss to Caldwell Community College on Jan. 23 – ending the regular season with the longest winning streak of the season is an achievement that the team is very proud of. 

“They’ve worked hard and really come together as a team. We expected to be very competitive this season – and they’ve shown that when it comes down to crunch time, they can bring it on hard,” says Patin. 

Spartanburg Methodist College has 14 intercollegiate teams that compete in Region X of the National Junior College Athletic Association, which includes colleges in the Carolinas, Virginia, and West Virginia.  

The College is in its 97th year of providing a quality education to students in a Christian environment. More than 90 percent of SMC graduates continue their education at other institutions of higher learning. 

For more information, contact head men’s basketball coach Rob Burke at (864) 237-8811 or head women’s basketball coach Ralph Patin at (803) 309-5539. 

###