VUU’s season ends with loss to Indiana (Pa.)

ERIE, Pa. -- Gregg Thondique is the heart and soul of an overachieving Virginia Union team that advanced to its 10th consecutive NCAA Division II tournament.

When Thondique came up lame yesterday after banking in an off-balance layup to give the Panthers a 34-33 lead early in the second half, Virginia Union's long shot national-title hopes were dashed.

The Panthers, who led 30-28 at halftime, were never the same when Thondique slumped onto the bench with 17:26 left in their Atlantic Region quarterfinal against Indiana (Pa.) University at the Hammermill Center.

The second-seeded Panthers (21-7), whose last court appearance was a loss to Johnson C. Smith two weeks ago in the CIAA tournament title game, were ousted in the opening round for the second year in a row as the seventh-seeded Crimson Hawks (22-7) moved into today's semifinals with a 69-63 victory.

Thondique, aggravating a sprained right ankle, scored 16 of his team-high 18 points in the first half. And his only field goal of the second half was a costly one.

"When our top gun went down, it hurt us a lot," said Virginia Union's first-year coach, Willard Coker. "It took away our inside game. It took away our momentum."

More important, the Panthers no longer had Thondique to bail them out as he did all season when VUU fired mostly blanks from the perimeter. Also, there was no one to compete on the boards with the Crimson Hawks, who parlayed a 16-rebound advantage (41-25) into uncontested second-chance points.

"We feed off of Gregg," said Brandon Byerson, who scored only nine points on 3-for-12 shooting. "It put a lot of pressure on Braxton [Byerson] and I to create our own shots, because they could come outside to challenge our shots without Gregg being inside.

"We won two games when Gregg was out [with an ankle injury]. But we just couldn't get our shots to fall this time."

The Crimson Hawks closed the first half by knocking down six straight 3-pointers to erase a five-point VUU lead. Once Thondique limped to the bench, forwards Gerald Brooks and Darryl Webb bloodied the Panthers in the paint.

The Crimson Hawks' frontcourt tandem combined for only seven points in the first half. But Brooks tallied 15 in the second half, and Webb scored eight.

The Panthers, though, couldn't find anyone to pick up the slack with an ailing Thondique watching anxiously from the bench. Brandon Byerson and Braxton Byerson, VUU's most reliable outside weapons, were 0 for 7 from the floor in the second half. Kyle Cook came off the bench to score 11 points. Lemoyne Williams finished with 14 points.

"I would have hurt the team even more if I had stayed in the game," said Thondique, who returned at the 7:15 mark but left grimacing nearly two minutes later. "I tried to give it a go, but I couldn't do anything."

Still, the Panthers were hanging around, making a push at trying to return to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2006. They reclaimed the lead, 46-44, with 10:43 left on a 3-pointer by Jason Wansley.

But as shot after shot bounced off the iron during a 5:03 span, the Crimson Hawks pulled away. IUP, getting a game-high 20 points and 11 rebounds from Brooks, strung together a 10-0 run to take a 54-46 lead with 6:04 to go.

Julian Sanders and Sean Christiansen took advantage of VUU's soft perimeter defense. They combined for seven 3-pointers, but layups and free throws by Brooks and Webb down the stretch put away the Panthers.

The Panthers made it 61-56 when Brandon Byerson hit 1 of 2 technical foul shots at 1:28. Then, the Crimson Hawks made 5 of 6 free throws to secure their spot in the semifinals.

"This was a fulfilling season for us, because we had a chance to show we are still Union," said Coker, who replaced legendary VUU coach Dave Robbins shortly after the Panthers were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the South Atlantic Region last year. "It's unfortunate it didn't end the way we wanted."

INDIANA (Pa.) (22-7)

Brooks 20, Webb 10, Young 5, Smith 7, Christiansen 11, Rocco 0, Sanders 14, Polen 2. Totals: 22 17-27 69.
VIRGINIA UNION (21-7)

Williams 14, Thondique 18, Brandon Byerson 9, Dupuy 0, Braxton Byerson 3, Wansley 5, Berry 3, McDonald 0, Smith 0, Cook 11. Totals: 25 9-13 63.

Halftime: VUU 30-28

3-point goals: VUU -- Braxton Byerson, Berry, Wansley. IUP -- Sanders (4), Christiansen (3), Smith