basketball big ten

The pressure of leading American to the NCAA Tournament for the first time was getting to the team’s best player, who woke up in cold sweats all week.
“I would have the same dream over and over,” Garrison Carr said. “And as much as I would try to not think about it, I would still wake up in the middle of the night sweating, with time running down and it being a close game … But we were still able to win it.”
The dream became reality Friday, when the Eagles (21-11) won the Patriot League title with a 52-46 victory over Colgate in Washington. It’s American’s first trip to the Big Dance since the school joined Division I in 1967. Said Carr: “I’m just extremely excited for the program.”
To the strains of “Don’t Stop Believin’” in an intimate and noisy Bender Arena awash with red, white and blue, Carr scored 17 points and was named tournament MVP. Brian Gilmore (11 points) wrestled away a key steal in the final 20 seconds for the Eagles, whose only previous berth in an NCAA Tournament came as a Division II school in 1960.
Since joining the Patriot League in 2001, American lost the championship games from 2002-04.

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