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2016 Conference USA Tournament Semifinals Recap: Trey Freeman Goes Off, Middle Tennessee Bounces Marshall

Friday was the Trey Freeman show.

(5) Old Dominion 89 (8) WKU 77

After a back-and-forth battle in the first half, Trey Freeman turned the second half of WKU and Old Dominion's semifinal game into the Trey Freeman show.

Freeman turned a 35-32 WKU halftime lead into 57 second half points for the Monarchs as he scored a tournament record 42 points, 34 of which came in the second half.

In the end, Freeman shot 15-of-25 from the field, adding four rebounds, and three assists.  The league's leading scorer during the regular season was a ridiculous 11-of-15 from the field in the final half.

WKU hung around in the first eight minutes of the second half, until ODU and Freeman went on a 13-6 spurt in two and a half minutes to build a 56-46 lead after Freeman drilled a triple at the 10:40 mark of the second half.

The Tops continued to trade buckets with ODU down the stretch, but were unable string together enough stops while ODU scored a season high 89 points.

Nigel Snipes was once again deadly from 3-point land for WKU, canning six treys and scoring 18 points.  He made 14 3-pointers in WKU's three tournament games.

Old Dominion scored on 67.7 percent of their possession in the game, and shot 65.4 percent in the second half which put the Tops away in the final eight minutes.

The Monarchs were all over the glass with a dominating 38-22 advantage on the boards, and got 18 points from Aaron Bacote, and 14 points, and 13 rebounds from Brandan Stith.

No one would have guessed these two teams would turn their semifinal game into a "score fest", but Freeman could not be stopped, and the Tops had zero answers for the talented senior.

(2) Middle Tennessee 99 (3) Marshall 90

Middle Tennessee weathered a slow offensive start, but recovered and simply manhandled Marshall 99-90 to bully their way into the C-USA Tournament Championship game.

Five Blue Raiders reached double figures led by Jaqawn Raymond with 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting.  Perrin Buford scored 18 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and handed out four assists.

Reggie Upshaw chipped in 17 points, and nine rebounds, Giddy Potts added 13 points for Middle Tennessee who shot 76.9 percent from the field in the second half.

The Blue Raiders started 4-of-16 from the field in the first nine minutes of the contest, but got it done at the free throw line the entire game firing a 31-for-41 clip from the charity stripe.  At one point, MTSU was 24-of-27 from the free throw line.

Marshall led 20-16 with 9:06 left in the first half, but Middle rolled off an impressive looking 23-9 run the rest of the half and led 39-29 at halftime.

Kermit Davis & Co. led by 18-points at the 16:57 mark of the second half, Marshall was able to climb back and cut the deficit to eight points in garbage time, but the Blue Raiders had pulled their starters and the outcome was never in doubt.

Both Ryan Taylor and James Kelly found themselves in early foul trouble for the Herd who shot 47.3 percent and got 20 points apiece from Stevie Browning and Austin Loop.

The finals is set, as the conference will either send Old Dominion or Middle Tennessee to the NCAA Tournament.

Championship action gets underway at 1:30 p.m. Mountain Time on FoxSports1.