DANVILLE, Va. -- The Methodist men's basketball team secured a spot in the USA South Conference Championship with an 83-73 win over Maryville on Friday evening at Averett University.
 
The Monarchs (17-10) will be seeking their first NCAA appearance since 2005 when they take on the winner of Friday's other semifinal which pits No. 1 Averett vs. No. 5 LaGrange. Maryville closed out its season with a final record of 20-7.
 
Davion Ayabarreno notched his second double-double in as many games with a game-high 23 points, on 11 of 13 shooting, to go with 10 rebounds and four assists. Jackson Whitley added a double-double of 15 points and 10 boards, and Rae Hall and Bryan Rouse contributed 14 and 13 points, respectively.
 
Colt Nokes led the Scots with 15 points, but just one in the second half, and Dante Hoppa added 13. Tyler Spicer and Calvin Songster chipped in 12 and 10 points, respectively.
 
A high-octane first half ended with Maryville holding a 47-44 lead at the break. Each team had a lead of at least five points in the opening 20 minutes. Methodist shot 60.7 percent (17-28) from the floor in the first half, while Maryville checked in at 56.7 percent (17-30). For the Monarchs, it marked the second game in a row win which they shot better than 60.0 percent in the first half.
 
The Scots opened the second half with a 10-5 run to take a 57-49 lead with 16:02 to play on a pair of free throws from Songster. Methodist countered with a 14-0 run to take a 63-57 lead with 8:44 to play. Six different MU players scored during the run, and the Green and Gold held MC without a field goal for nearly 10 minutes until a Songster triple made it 63-62 in favor of MU with 6:57 to play.
 
Methodist still held a one-point lead (65-64) with 5:44 on the clock, but quickly pushed that to a seven-point advantage (73-66) by the 3:11 mark following a layup from Ayabarreno. The Scots were able to cut their deficit to five with just over two minutes to play, but five straight misses from the floor by MC sealed MU's win.
 
Methodist shot 57.6 percent (34-59) for the game, and held Maryville to 39.7 percent shooting (25-63), including just 24.2 percent (8-33) in the second half. The Scots launched 34 three-point attempts, but only connected 10 times (.294). Methodist also held a 39-31 edge on the glass.
 
The second-seeded Monarchs now advance to Saturday's final where they will take on either the top-seeded Averett Cougars, or the No. 5 seed and defending tournament champion LaGrange Panthers. The Finals will tip at 3 pm.