March 2, 2006

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) - Tim Jennings scored on an inbounds pass from underneath the basket with less than a second left to give Gardner-Webb a 64-63 victory over East Tennessee State in the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament quarterfinals Thursday night.

Jennings' deciding basket allowed the Bulldogs to complete a comeback from a 17-point second half deficit.

Fourth-seeded Gardner-Webb (17-11) will face top-seeded Lipscomb in Friday's semifinals.

Two free throws by Brad Nuckles gave East Tennessee State, the fifth seed, a 63-61 lead with 1:48 remaining. The Bucs appeared to be in good shape when they got the ball with 4.3 seconds remaining.

But on the inbounds play, the ball was slapped off East Tennessee State's Tim Smith, setting up Jennings' dramatics. Jennings took a lob pass from T.J. McCullough and laid it in to eliminate the host team from the tournament.

Smith, conference player of the year, scored 21 points to lead East Tennessee State, which led 45-28 early in the second half.

Simon Conn, who represented Australia in last summer's University Games, led the Bulldogs with 20 points. Chris Gash had 15 and Brian Bender had 14. Jennings, conference defensive player of the year, finished with 10.

Dillion Sneed had 13 points for East Tennessee State. Brad Nuckles added 12.

East Tennessee State used an 11-2 run to start the second half to go up 45-28. But the Bulldogs climbed back with an 11-2 run of their own to cut the deficit to eight.

Smith later scored eight straight points as the Bucs increased their lead back to double figures. Another 11-2 run by Gardner-Webb cut East Tennessee State's lead to 59-57 with 3:02 remaining.