Our Daily Dive series is your daily rundown of what is happening around NAIA basketball. We feature game breakdowns, updates on players, coaches teams and leagues for both men’s and women’s basketball.
We are headed into a BIG weekend of game action and we couldn’t be happier! While we have had a handful of games already this season, this weekend kind of feels like the start of the season, part two, as there are a ton of teams who make their 2021-22 season debuts. But, for now, we had some awesome action yesterday that we need to cover.
– October 28th Games of the Day: We don’t always get them right, but we handed out two great ones yesterday and hope you tuned in!
- #4 Loyola (LA) 85 – RV Dillard (LA) 74. Dillard used a late 1st half run to go up by as much as 10pts. They carried a 9pt lead into the break, but it was ALL Loyola in the 2nd half as they crawled back into the game. They finished the game on a 16-2 run to make the score worse than the game actually was. Brandon Davis led the way for the Wolfpack with 21pts. In 3 games this season, Loyola has had three different scorers, none of which have been by their two All-Americans. We have mentioned it before, this is a deep and talented Loyola squad! Kaleb Allison had 22pts, 14rebs for Dillard in the loss.
- MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan) 67– Bellevue (Neb) 58 2OT. This was an extremely low scoring affair, which if you have followed legendary MidAm Head Coach, Rocky Lamar, then you know that pace favored Bellevue, as MNU usually likes to play up-tempo. The Pioneers though, were finally able to pull away in the 2nd OT, outscoring Bellevue, 13-4 to win the Jeff Uphaus Memorial Tournament. MNU was led by Trey Brown’s 22pts, including a DEEP 3 pointer late in the 2nd OT to seal the deal for the Pioneers. Also shout out to former MNU Assistant, Nate Launius, who was on the call for the game. We usually have games on mute, but was fun listening to him last night!
– Other NAIA notable games/performances:
- #22 The Master’s (CA) defeated NCAA D2 Azusa Pacific 66-58 in exhibition play. Mustang Freshman, Kaleb Lowery had 21pts and 9rebs in the win.
- Got to give it up to Langston (OK) last night. The Lions started last nights game against Texas College with six players and then played with FOUR players the last couple minutes of regulation and the entire OT. They would ultimately lose, in OT, but they made some big plays with just four guys.
- Truett McConnell came away with a big 69-66 win over Voorhees in what was a phenomenal game from start to finish! Enoka Franky led the way for the Bears with a 17pt, 14reb double-double. Antonio Lewis led the way for Voorhees with 16pts.
- Carrington Campbell hit the game winner for Florida Memorial.
– They couldn’t quite pull it off, but the defending NAIA Women’s National Champs, Westmont, gave NCAA D1 Pac 12, Cal all they could handle last night. The #1 ranked team in the country looks every bit ready to defend their National Title this season.
– Plenty of great action today for both the Men and Women. We have games starting as early as Noon CT, and running throughout the day! Be sure to stay with us as we continue to bring you the BEST NAIA Hoops coverage in the World!
