J.C. Smith heads to CIAA semifinals. Here’s how they got past a tough quarterfinals.

J.C. Smith is far from perfect, but it’s good enough to get to the CIAA basketball tournament semifinals.

The Golden Bulls (19-10), who are making their first final four appearance since 2014 after Wednesday’s 68-58 win against Fayetteville State, play Bowie State Friday at 9 p.m. All-CIAA forward Roddric Ross keyed J.C. Smith’s advance with a game-high 23 points, including 21 in the second half against the Broncos in the quarterfinals.

“It was the team intensity in the second half,” Ross said. “The first half, I felt like we played pretty decent and were true to our principals, but (we) were overthinking the game. The second half, we picked the intensity up and I felt like I had to do anything possible to help my team, whether it was play better defense or rebound.”

The Golden Bulls were on a roller-coaster February, which included a school-record nine-game win streak, followed by three losses by a combined five points in their final four regular-season games. They struggled early against Fayetteville State, hitting only 30.3 percent (10-of-33) of their first-half shots before picking up to 48.1 percent (13-of-27) in the second.

“The first half we didn’t play with an understanding of what it takes to win,” Golden Bulls coach Steve Joyner said. “The second half, we gained some composure and took control of the ball game.”

In order for the Golden Bulls to succeed Friday, they’ll need their all-conference trio of Ross, league MVP Robert Davis and point guard Christian Kirchman to come up big. They combined for 48 points against Fayetteville State, with Davis tossing in 16 points on 4-of-17 shooting.

This story was originally published March 1, 2018 at 8:02 PM with the headline "J.C. Smith heads to CIAA semifinals. Here’s how they got past a tough quarterfinals.."