Wofford beats Appalachian State, earns first NCAA berth

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/09/2010 - Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cameron Rundles had 20 points to help Wofford capture the Southern Conference Tournament title with a 56-51 win over Appalachian State.

The Terriers (26-8) captured their first title and gained the automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament for their first appearance in the Big Dance.

Noah Dahlman had 10 points while Tim Johnson grabbed 13 rebounds for Wofford, which defeated UNC Greensboro and Western Carolina to reach the title game.

Andre Williamson had 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Ryann Abraham added 11 points for the Mountaineers (22-12), who were looking for their first crown since 2000.

Trailing by 18 points early in the second half, the Mountaineers clawed their way back into the game with 10 straight points. Williamson capped the run on a pair of buckets, with the last coming with just under 13 minutes to play to make it a 36-28 game.

Wofford continued to lead by two or three possessions for the next several minutes, but Abraham was fouled as he buried three-pointer and he hit the free throw to make it a four-point game, 48-44 with 2 1/2 minutes to play.

Rundles followed with a free throw, and both sides missed several attempts at either end.

Williamson put in a free throw with just under a minute to play to again make it a four-point game, but Terry Martin followed with two from the line for Wofford.

After Abraham quickly sank a layup, Rundles was fouled and drained his two attempts.

A Williamson slam was countered by 1-of-2 from Brad Loesing, but Rundles stole the ball from Abraham and hit a free throw to make it a six-point game with 19 seconds left to essentially seal the win.

The Terriers scored 17 of the first 20 points in the game, and maintained a significant lead through the remainder of the first half. A Rundles free throw followed by a Jamar Diggs jumper closed out the scoring in the half to give Wofford a 33-18 lead after 20 minutes.

Game Notes

Appalachian State leads the series, 22-11...Wofford shot 35.2 percent in the game while Appalachian State hit 28.8 percent of its shots.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

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Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

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