Friday, March 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
All-America center Kebu Stewart had 29 points and 17 rebounds Thursday night, leading No. 7 Bakersfield to an 81-68 victory over No. 2 Salem-Teikyo.
Bakersfield (28-4) and Northern Kentucky (30-4) will meet for the championship Saturday.
Stewart scored 16 points in the first half, a sharp contrast to the quarterfinals when he went scoreless in the first 20 minutes, but finished with 17 points in a 65-62 victory over Southern Connecticut.
"I wanted to start off good in the first half," said Stewart, a transfer from UNLV. "I wanted to show my presence right away."
Salem-Teikyo forward Carl Bohannan said the Tigers needed to contain Stewart around the basket to have a chance of winning.
"The game plan for us was to front Stewart and help from the weak side," he said. "Stewart was just much stronger than us. Seventeen rebounds just killed us, especially his seven offensive rebounds."
Stewart scored seven points during a 9-2 run that took Bakersfield from a 42-41 deficit with 14:58 left in the game to a 50-44 lead two minutes later.
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