The Daily Dive is your deep dive into the news and notes from around the NAIA Hoops World. Every day we will highlight some of the top headlines, conference updates, player accolades, coaching milestones and more. This used to be our Morning Bullet Points series. We went away from it this year, as others were doing similar things and we didn’t want to step on any toes. At the request of many, we have elected to bring it back for the second half of the season. Feel free to DM us on Twitter (@NAIAHoopsReport) or send an email to naiahoopsreport@gmail.com to recommend stories to be included into this segment.
It’s safe to say that with all of these postseason games charging to watch, that we will be broke before the National Tournament! This isn’t to complain, as we understand why leagues/teams charge to watch. Just makes it hard for the casual fans, who want to watch every game. Nonetheless, last night we had our first postseason game of the 2020-21 season and it lived up to the hype! In a way, it was nice to see a postseason game take place. We are just a couple weeks off from where the season got cancelled last year. It’s been a unique and challenging season, but to finally get to the postseason is a great accomplishment for the NAIA!
Recap of Yesterday’s Games of the Day:
Vanguard 97 @ Hope International 110 (Full Recap)
Vanguard avenges their loss from two nights ago and goes into Hope International and gets the big win. These two teams will play one more time. If Vanguard can win that game to move to 4-2 in the GSAC West, then they should lock up the auto-bid from their division.
College of Idaho 71 @ 4 Lewis-Clark State 74 (Full Recap)
It was 1st postseason game of the season at ANY level and it did NOT disappoint. What a fantastic way to jumpstart an old rivalry game! You can bet that a lot of “Bubble” teams were watching this game and many were nervous with College of Idaho up 5 with under 2 minutes to play. The Yotes though just couldn’t close it out and a technical with 3 seconds left in the game put LCSC up 3 and then they forced a turnover to close out the game. Game 2 will be on Sunday. Lewis-Clark State is just 1 win away from punching their ticket to the National Tournament as the Cascade Collegiate Conference Champions!
Ave Maria 72 @ Southeastern 75 (Full Recap) & Thomas 53 @ 23 Warner 68 (Full Recap)
It was a huge night for the Warner Royals as not only did they get the win, but Ave Maria also lost which allows them to now clinch The Sun Conference Regular Season Title and a birth in the NAIA National Tournament on Saturday. It was also a big night for Southeastern, as they clinched a spot in The Sun Conference Tournament with the win.
Full Scoreboard:
ICYMI:
– NAIA Top Plays from this week:
– Dalton State will no longer be playing in the SSAC Tournament, so here is the revised bracket:
– The Appalachian Athletic Conference also announced their tournament bracket.
– You are going to want to cancel all of your plans for today as we have some HUGE games on today’s slate including THREE Top 25 matchups!
