Fayetteville Beats JC Smith

In their CIAA Men’s semifinal against Johnson C. Smith, the Fayetteville State Broncos turned a close game in the first half into a rout in the second half and cruised into Saturday’s championship game with a 90-68 win over the Golden Bulls at CFG Bank Arena.   

Fayetteville State (22-6) will take on the Big Blue of Bluefield in Saturday’s men’s CIAA Championship. Johnson C. Smith, who upset Virginia Union on a last-second shot in the quarterfinals,  saw their season end at 12-16.

The Broncos were led by the scoring of senior Larry Howell, who scored 23 points and by Travon Cooper added 21 points.  As a team, Fayetteville State hit 47 percent of its shots and hit 47 percent of its three-point shots in the second half.

After taking a 40-35 lead over Johnson C. Smith at halftime, the Broncos opened the second half with a 23-8 scoring spurt to give them insurmountable 61-43 lead.  

Fayetteville State never looked back and went to score 50 points in the second half. The Broncos held the Golden Bulls to just 33 percent shooting, and they held them to just 2-of-16 shooting from behind the three-point arc. 

Redshirt junior guard Trey Pettigrew (19 points) and senior forward Jamauri Bryant (18 points) were the leading scorers for Johnson C. Smith.