- Good Morning NAIA Hoops Nation!!! It’s a busy time of year, with big time games night in and night out. We’re at the time of year, where it’s not just the top of the leagues that are fighting for position, but those towards the bottoms of leagues are fighting to make the conference tournament. It makes for great basketball, because a bad night may drop you a few spots in the league, or knock you out of your own conference tournament. League tournaments and qualifications are something we will dive into more soon!
- DI Game Recaps
- Evangel (MO) 68 – RV MidAmerica Nazarene (KS) 96
- MidAmerica Nazarene has been really good at home this season. Especially in conference play, where they haven’t been beat. Last night was no exception as they used a BIG first half to pound Evangel. Patrick Cairns came off the bench to score a game high 24 points on 8-14 shooting, including 5-8 from 3. The Pioneers were red hot all night as they hit 14 3’s at 51.9%. MNU is entering a very tough portion of their schedule, as they go TO Benedictine, TO #3 William Penn, and TO Central Methodist. Game Recap|Box Score
- #9 Carroll (MT) 101 – Rocky Mountain (MT) 97 3OT
- What a game this turned out to be. I am still exhausted from it, and I didn’t even play in the game! Rocky played a great game, and even held a 3 point lead late, until a Dane Warp desperation 3 at the end of regulation found the bottom of the net and forced the 1st OT. The big shots in this game were just getting started, as Carroll hit a big 3 late in OT, to tie the game and force a 2nd OT, then it was Rocky’s turn in the 2nd OT, as Darius Henderson hit a 3 to tie it up, and Rocky Mountain got a stop on Carroll’s last possession to force a 3rd OT!! The 3rd OT, was mostly controlled by Carroll, and they made the FT’s late to fend off a Rocky Mountain team that played with a lot of heart. Dane Warp had 33 points in the win, while Jovan Sljivancanin had a MONSTER game of 21 points, and 20 rebounds. Game Recap|Box Score
- DII Recaps
- #5 Oregon Tech 76 – #15 Southern Oregon 77
- What a huge comeback from Southern Oregon in this one. They were down by 17 with 16:26 left in the 2nd half in this one, and actually trailed for all but 5 seconds in this game. Those 5 seconds were the most important ones though, as the Aaron Borich floater gave the Raiders the win! Both Borich, and Tate Hoffman scored 16 points in the victory. Seth Erickson had a big night for Oregon Tech as he scored 36 points, including 6-9 from 3! Game Recap|Box Score
- #4 Olivet Nazarene (IL) 68 – #25 Holy Cross (IN) 85
- Holy Cross got a big CCAC home win against #4 Olivet Nazarene to help move them into a tie for 1st place. Holy Cross found themselves down early, but a late 1st half run gave them a 38-32 lead at the break. The 2nd half was all Holy Cross as they got up by as much as 23 with a minute to play. The Saints put 5 guys into double figures and were led by Parker Sims who had 18 points in the win. Game Recap|Box Score
- #7 Ottawa (KS) 80 – #16 Oklahoma Wesleyan 90
- The KCAC is going to be a thriller to watch down the stretch here, as a HOT Oklahoma Wesleyan team got a big win over #7 Ottawa last night, and now there are 6 teams within 2 games of the conference lead. Oklahoma Wesleyan used a 15-4 run into halftime to take a 51-36 lead. Ottawa wasn’t able to get anything going in this one as they were just 37.5% from the field, and just 27% from 3. They were able to outscore OKWU in the 2nd half, but the Eagles had built up a big enough lead to hold on for the win. Brooks Haddock scored 21 points for OKWU in the win. Darryl Bowie, while struggling from the field was able to make 9-11 FT’s to score 21 points for Ottawa. Game Recap|Box Score
- UM-Dearborn 39 – Indiana Tech 65
- Don’t look now, but there is a new team in 1st place in the WHAC, as Indiana Tech won it’s 4th straight game, and now has won 9 of it’s last 10. Indiana Tech outscored Dearborn 37-19 in the 1st half as they went on to roll to a big win over the previously ranked Wolverines. Cory McKinney led Tech with 15 points. The Warriors now hit the road to face #13 Lourdes on Saturday in a game that will be for 1st place. Game Recap|Box Score
- A couple milestones were hit and we want to congratulate them all!
- Jack Brody from SXU passed the 800 career rebound mark!
- All-American Rayshawn Mart, from Xavier (LA) is the newest member of the 1k career point club!
- Coach Troy Brown at Saint Mary (KS) picked up his 100th career victory!
- BIG news out of the NAIA yesterday as they released 2 of the 16 tournament host sites for next year. We are finally getting the picture painted for what the playoff system will look like next season when NAIA moves to 1 division. We will have more on this down the road, but here is the release from the NAIA:
- It will be interesting to see where the remaining 14 host sites are, BUT Coach French from Rio Grande (OH) dropped some great information yesterday on twitter, including these two tidbits of information:
- Sounds like some of the details are still being ironed out, so we will let it all unfold first before we dive any deeper!!
