Friday, December 21st, 10:00 p.m. (et).

FACTS & STATS: Site: Stan Sheriff Center (10,300) -- Honolulu, Hawaii. Television: Local. Home Record: St. Mary's 6-0, ETSU 3-0. Away Record: St. Mary's 0-1, ETSU 1-5. Neutral Record: St. Mary's 2-0, ETSU 1-0. Conference Record: St. Mary's 0-0, ETSU 0-0. Series Record: First-ever meeting.

GAME NOTES: In one of the most stunning victories in recent memory, the East Tennessee State Buccaneers defeated Georgia last night to keep their hopes for a title alive in the 44th Annual Rainbow Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center. Standing in the way of the Bucs in the semifinals tonight are the St. Mary's Gaels, a team that had been part of the national rankings after a strong start to the 2007-08 campaign, but dropped out after their first loss. ETSU, coming off one of its worst losses ever in a 125-75 setback versus Syracuse, dialed up the defense on Thursday and captured a 76-58 victory over the Bulldogs to snap a two-game slide. As for the Gaels, they bounced back from a disappointing effort against Southern Illinois nine days earlier to post a 64-57 win against Tulane in the opening round of the tourney. It won't be enough to get the team back into the Top-25, but a couple more victories out on the island could do the trick. With respect to the all-time series between these two schools on the hardwood, this is the first-ever meeting. The winner of this matchup goes up against the winner of the Ohio University/UL-Lafayette contest for the tournament title on Saturday night.

The Gaels didn't exactly shoot the lights out on Thursday, hitting just 36.2 percent from the field and 4-of-23 behind the three-point line, and yet the squad still had enough left in the tank to come up with the win over Tulane. Patrick Mills accounted for a team-high 23 points, Omar Samhan added 11 points and five boards, while Diamon Simpson focused much of his energies on the glass as he cleared 11 rebounds to help give the team a 41-36 rebounding advantage against the Green Wave. Mills, who has made all but four of his 44 free-throw attempts this season, leads the team with his 16.3 ppg and is also first with just over four assists per outing. Samhan and Simpson take care of the inside game for the Gaels with 12.9 ppg and 12.0 ppg, respectively, as they also combine for 16.4 rpg and have registered a collective 38 of the team's 55 blocked shots. Defensively, the Gaels are limiting opponents to just 41.1 percent from the field and 30.3 percent beyond the arc, more than enough to give them a scoring margin of +11.5 ppg.

More than anything else, ETSU put themselves into the win column last night because the Bulldogs were sluggish from the field. The Bucs made just 3-of-9 from three-point range in the contest and 47.4 percent from the floor overall, but another deciding factor for the group was that they made good on 19-of-25 chances at the free-throw line, compared to only 10-of-19 for Georgia. Courtney Pigram led the way with his 18 points for East Tennessee, followed by Andrew Reed and Kenyona Swader who both tallied 14 points, the former grabbing eight rebounds and rejecting three shots as well. Pigram has been hogging up the scoring spotlight, leading the team with his 17.0 ppg on the strength of 40 percent shooting behind the three-point line. Responsible for a team-best 38 assists as well over 10 starts, Pigram could have even stronger scoring numbers if not for the fact that he has converted only 58.1 percent at the free-throw line. Kevin Tiggs is in for 14.7 ppg and Travis Strong 10.1 ppg, but with a scoring advantage of just 1.2 ppg over opponents, the Bucs leave little room for error these days.

East Tennessee State had its day in the sun on Thursday, so to expect back-to- back upsets would be asking quite a lot from the Bucs. Expect the Gaels to dial up the defense once again and shut down ETSU on the way to the title game.

Predicted Outcome

St. Mary's-CA 68, East Tennessee State 60