MEMPHIS-The Christian Brothers University Bucs used a 12-2 run midway through the second half to open an 11-point lead, and they held on for a 65-64 win over West Florida Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the VisitSpaceCoast.com Gulf South Conference Tournament.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
• The Argos (20-9) used an early 8-0 run, all by Marvin Jones, to open a 10-5 lead on a Jones triple with 15:19 remaining in the first half.
• UWF held the lead until the Bucs (18-11) closed the first half on a 9-0 run capped by a Brad Miller (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder HS) triple with 57 seconds remaining to give the Bucs a 28-25 edge.
• CBU used an early five-point burst capped by an Adam Dieball (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) three-point play to take a 33-27 edge with 16:26 remaining.
• The Argos stormed back with an 8-0 run capped by a Jones triple that gave them a 35-33 lead with 14:36 to play.
• Jeff Larkin (Cincinnati, Ohio/La Salle HS) started the decisive run when Dieball found him for a layup with 9:03 remaining to give the Bucs a 46-43 lead. When Dieball capped the run with a layup of his own, the Bucs led 56-45 with 5:15 remaining.
• The Argos came back with a 12-3 run of their own to pull within 59-57 on a Rashaan Benson free throw with 1:11 remaining.
• Larkin found Joe Laravie (Kettering, Ohio/Alter HS) for a backdoor layup with 56.1 seconds remaining to put the Bucs back ahead by four at 61-57, and Laravie sank a pair of free throws with 18.7 seconds remaining to give the Bucs a 63-58 edge.
• UWF's Jason Laatsch made a three-pointer with 5.7 seconds remaining to bring UWF back within 63-61, but Miller made two free throws with five seconds remaining to give the Bucs a 65-61 lead. Laatsch made another triple with 0.3 seconds remaining, but the Bucs passed the ball in to Larkin, who ran the clock out for the victory.

KEY STATS:
• Dieball scored 22 points with eight assists, six rebounds and no turnovers in 37 minutes.
• Larkin scored 17 with four rebounds and three assists.
• Laravie added 11 with three rebounds.
• Miller scored nine with four assists and no turnovers.
• Alex Trentman (Alexandria, Ky./Bishop Brossart HS) grabbed a team-high nine rebounds with three assists and two blocks.

HEAD COACH MIKE NIENABER'S THOUGHTS:
"What a game. We get the 8 or 9 point lead and then we start turning it over again like we did against Huntsville last week."

"I think that's where our inexperience sometimes shows. It's like we've got it and we just can't make the final play. It's like we get in a little bit of a panic when we're sitting 7 or 8 points ahead with 2 minutes to go. We had two or three turnovers again right there. That's going to kill us eventually,. We're lucky we survived it tonight."

"Two teams that are playing very well. West Florida has been playing as good as anybody in the league. We knew it was going to be a battle. I'm just thankful we came out on top of it."

On guarding Darryl Tucker, who finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds:
"Cody did a good job on him. Alex and Mitch were having trouble, they both got in foul trouble. Cody's the guy who gets in there, his grit, his intensity was the difference there."

On Larkin and Dieball playing like All-Conference players:
"We've had a lot of games where one of them has been on and the other one hasn't and some of our secondary guys stepped up big for us. But tonight, early in the game a couple of those threes Jeff hit were so big keeping us close. We were getting in a little bit of trouble, you don't need to get down 10 in the first half in a game like this. Both of his threes were big as far as keeping us close."

"The other big thing is that we got their big guys in a little bit of foul trouble and then went at them. That got Adam going. He's been depending so much on threes and I think taking quick ones sometimes, but the difference tonight for Adam is he got inside and made some things happen. He goes 1-for-6 from three, he goes 10-for-19 overall, so do the math I guess he's 9-for-13 around the basket. That was more the way he was last year when he was emerging as a player. I've been trying to get him more of that. I think he's pulling threes sometimes quicker than he needs to."

"I'm so proud of these guys, because to do what we had to do. After we had gotten to that point where we were a game over .500 at 8-7, we had lost four in a row, our season could have wound up like West Georgia's at that point. You're tinkering, you're starting to lose confidence, we're not making shots. We stepped up and we've gone 10-4 since then."

"This team being in this position to get in the NCAA Tournament with this young team is one of the happiest accomplishments I've had for a team. So many of these guys were part of two very frustrating teams. Being able to do what we've done the last six or seven weeks. I'm as proud of these guys as any team I've ever coached."

WHAT'S NEXT:
The Bucs advance to Saturday night's semifinals against No. 16 Valdosta State at 5 p.m. The GSC's regular season champion defeated North Alabama 115-94 in another Tuesday night quarterfinal. Saturday's other semifinal features third-seeded Delta State against second-seeded Alabama Huntsville.