- Good Morning NAIA Hoops Nation! It is Superbowl weekend, but we will still be posting our NAIA Top 25 on Sunday! It is interesting how the landscape in each division has played out over the last two weeks.
- Speaking of NAIA Top 25, we had several ranked teams circled last night as our games to watch. Included in that were the top 4 teams in NAIA DI, and 3 of the 4 games ended up being great games!
- We started off with the rematch between 25 @ Shawnee St, and #1 Georgetown. This was a great game at Shawnee a few weeks back, and the rematch didn’t disappoint either as Georgetown, after being down 7 at half, Georgetown was able come back and win in Overtime 69-62. Chris Coffey ended the game with 13 points and 18 rebounds, while Kyran Jones led Georgetown in scoring with 17 points, while grabbing 10 rebounds in the win. Kyree Elder led all scorers with 21 points for Shawnee.
- #10 John Brown got their redemption on #2 Mid-America Christian as they won the Top 10 showdown 81-74. Rokus Grabliauskas had a career high 29 points, and JBU used a 16-1 run in the 2nd half to blow open a tight game. MACU was able to close the gap a bit late in the game, but John Brown held on for the big win. JBU now sits just a half game back of MACU in a Sooner Athletic Conference race that will surely go down to the last week, and both of these teams are poised to make deep runs at nationals.
- The #3 team in the country, William Penn, was also knocked off last night. RV Clarke moved to just a half game back of William Penn with the 78-77 win. William Penn’s Kamari Newman missed an open 3 at the buzzer, and Clarke was able to walk away with it’s 6th straight win, and its 12th in it’s last 13 games. Nick Marshall led the way for Clarke with 21 points. William Penn is William Penn, and will always be a force in Kansas City, but this Clarke team is a team that can surprise a few teams at the National Tournament as well.
- The last game we had circled was #4 ranked Westmont beat #22 Arizona Christian 87-74. This game was ALL Westmont, as they were up by 19 in the 1st half, and coasted to the finish line. Justin Bessard scored 23 points for Westmont, while Abram Carrassco finished with 22 points, after his big first half that saw him score 20 of those 22 points.
- As we like to do, we will end this mornings bullets with some of the top plays from last night!
