Enechionyia, Saint Peter's whips Furman 77-51 in CIT semis

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) Nnamdi Enechionyia scored 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting, and St. Peter's used a hot start to coast to a 77-51 win over Furman in the semifinals of the CIT on Wednesday night.

Chazz Peterson and Antwon Portley had 13 points each and Quadir Welton added, 11 with a career-high 16 rebounds for the Peacocks (22-13), who play for the Collegeinsider.com Tournament championship at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday.

Devin Sibley scored 20 for the Paladins (23-12), who tied the record for the most wins in school history but couldn't win for interim coach Bob Richey. Richey was filling in for Niko Medved, who accepted the Drake job over the weekend.

St. Peter's scored the first 15 points as the Paladins missed their first 10 shots. The lead reached 34-8 when Patterson hit a 3-pointer with 3:59 to go but an 8-0 spurt helped Furman close it to 37-19 at the break.

The Paladins got within 12 early in the second half. Shortly after that Enechionyia made four straight shots, three of them 3s, and had 11 straight points for St. Peter's.

The Peacocks, who were 13 of 27 behind the arc, shot 56 percent while Furman shot 36.5.