Carr drives Queens into NCAA D-II regional finals
Daniel Carr played more than 39 minutes Sunday night, and the Queens basketball team needed every second of that.
Carr scored a career-high 33 points and played superb defense as the top-seeded Royals outlasted Catawba 96-93 in an emotional NCAA Division II Southeast Regional semifinal at the Levine Center.
Queens (30-4) advances to the regional championship at 7 p.m. Tuesday against second-seeded Augusta. At stake will be a berth in the Elite Eight round in Evansville, Ind. Queens is the defending Southeast champion.
Carr’s scoring was only part of the story. He held Marcell Haskett, Catawba’s 3-point specialist, to a season-low four points.
“If I could copy him, I’d make copies and put him at every position,” Queens coach Bart Lundy said of the 6-foot junior guard. “Daniel Carr was the best player on the floor.”
The outcome wasn’t decided until the final second, when Haskett’s 3-point attempt fell short. He had Carr in his face when he shot.
“I think he (Haskett) got one or two clean looks in transition,” Lundy said. “Otherwise, he had Daniel Carr draped around him.”
Catawba, which went 0-3 against Queens this season in games that were decided by three or fewer points, never led Sunday night. But the Indians (25-8) rallied several times from big deficits and kept the game close.
Down 93-91 with 21 seconds left, Catawba stole an inbounds pass, but Jordan McElveen missed an 8-foot jump shot. The Royals’ Blake Morrow grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and made a free throw. Haskett connected on a 2-point field goal with 4.4 seconds remaining, but the Indians fouled Carr, who made both free throws.
That set up Catawba’s final possession, which ended with the Haskett miss.
3 who mattered
Daniel Carr, Queens: Carr hit 5-of-7 shots from 3-point range and scored a career-high 33 points. He also had five rebounds. He played all but 41 seconds of the game.
Van Turner Jr., Queens: He hit three 3-pointers early in the game, getting the Royals off to a big start. Turner finished with 11 points.
Malik Constantine, Catawba: Constantine, a 6-foot-6 junior who played at Olympic High, scored a team-high 24 points in a reserve role and grabbed seven rebounds.
Worth mentioning
▪ A double-foul call with 32.2 seconds remaining triggered emotions on both coaches. Lundy and Catawba coach Rob Perron were in each others’ faces, before Queens assistant coaches pulled Lundy back. “I apologized to Rob afterwards,” Lundy said. “I feel bad that I might have inflamed a situation.”
▪ Ardrey Kell product Devin Cooper, a 6-1 junior for Catawba, had a solid game with 15 points.
▪ Catawba outrebounded Queens in the teams’ two regular-season meetings, but the Royals won the battle of the boards 40-34 Sunday night.
▪ Sunday’s game drew a near-capacity crowd, with plenty of fans from each school. “It was an intense atmosphere – about as intense as any I’ve had in my six years back here,” Lundy said.
▪ Entering Sunday night’s game, Queens had hit was 5-for-40 from 3-point range in its last two games – Saturday’s quarterfinal victory over Emmanuel, and a loss to Lenoir-Rhyne in the South Atlantic Conference semifinals. The Royals were 8-of-14 from 3-point range Sunday night.
▪ In the first semifinal, No. 2 seed Augusta overcame a 22-point deficit with 12 minutes remaining and beat USC-Aiken 93-89 in overtime. The Jaguars (28-5) hit 17-of-34 from 3-point range, including 7-of-14 by leading scorer Tyvez Monroe (21 points). USC-Aiken finished 27-6.
They said it
▪ “I was trying to keep it all business. If I’m calm, I help keep everyone on the same page.” – Queens guard Daniel Carr, talking about the intense final minutes of the game.
This story was originally published March 17, 2019 at 11:14 PM.