Tournament Review

2005 AAC Champions + 2004-2005 Season + Archive + Basketball + Athletics

Bristol, TN- The Appalachian Athletic Conference headed for the hills on Thursday, Feb. 24, for the 2004-2005 conference tournament. This year the games were played at King College for the first time.

Twelve teams competed for the final bid in the NAIA National Tournament.  Brevard College from North Carolina won the regular season crown with a conference record of 21-1. Bryan College came in second with a record of 19-3. 

This year's tournament was nothing short of exciting. In the second round, the first-place Brevard Tornadoes lost in overtime 88-81, to eventual tournament runner-up Milligan College. Milligan came in as the nine seed in the tournament. After beating the tournament favorite, Milligan turned around on Friday and beat King 73-61 on their home floor. Leah Seevers lead the Buffalo in each of the two games scoring 24 and 25 points respectively.

On the other side of the bracket, number two seed Bryan College had a tough road to the championship. They opened up with Union College, who is undoubtedly one of the toughest teams in the conference. The Lady Lions were sparked to a 79-66 victory by Sarah Bass, who scored 31 points. Junior Lacey Swanson steadied the attack with 12 points, including 2 of 3 from behind the arch. In the quarterfinal round, Bryan faced the number three seeded Cobras from Virginia Intermont. Kellie Thurman had 10 points at half to steady the Bryan attack and lead them to a 63-51 win.

On Saturday, Bryan (2) met Milligan (9) in the championship "winner takes Iowa" game. Bryan jumped out to a 9-0 lead. Milligan countered with a patient offensive game and a pressure defensive effort. At the half, Bryan found itself with a four-point lead (23-19).

In the second half, Liz Bass lit it up, netting 23 for the game. Also, sophomore post Brittany Swanson hit 3 three-pointers in the second half to propel the Lady Lions to a 63-45 win and the school's first-ever conference tournament championship.

Bryan will leave Sunday for their second straight NAIA national tournament appearence. 

Bryan seniors Liz and Sarah Bass, as well as sophomore Brittany Swanson were named to the AAC All-tounament team, with Liz earning the MVP trophy.