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.
Whether you are one of the NAIA diehards who engage and interact with us on the interwebs or brand new to the NAIA. THIS was an awesome weekend to follow NAIA basketball. From big time games to milestones to upsets, we had just about everything you could ask for in small college basketball this weekend.
- History Made!
- Want to start off by giving another big congratulations to Sarah Gayler of Brescia on her first win as a Head Coach. Earlier this season she became the first woman to be named as a head coach for men’s college basketball program. On Saturday, she got her first win as a Head Coach as Brescia knocked off UHSP. The win means she is ALSO the first woman to WIN a game as a head coach of a men’s program.
– Speaking of coaching wins, we had a weekend full of coaching milestones:
- Coach Jerry McFarland at Washington Adventist got his first win as Head Coach!
- Edwin McGhee of Lincoln (IL) also got his first win as a Head Coach!
– Lance Von Vogt of William Jessup got win #250 this weekend.
– John Kenger Head Coach of IU Kokomo Women’s Basketball got his first win at Kokomo!
- Clarke Women’s Head Coach, Courtney Boyd, got her 100th career win!
– Best Team Performan0ces:
- A lot of teams had BIG weekend performances, here are a few.
- William Jessup (CA)
- Not only did Coach Von Vogt get his 250th win, but it was another really good weekend for the William Jessup Warriors. This time it was in the Lithia-Oregon Tech Classic. The Warriors moved to 5-0, beating Southern Oregon and then #13 Oregon Tech. It was their second win against OIT this season.
- #2 Saint Francis (IN)
- Now 8-0, the Cougars had a really great weekend, winning the BEVO Francis Championship with wins over Rochester and then beating #1 Shawnee State 102-74. The win ended the nations longest win streak at 31 games. The Cougars will be the new #1 team in the NAIA come Wednesday!
- #4 William Penn (IA)
- We misstated on the Podcast that this was a classic that William Penn was playing in this weekend. Turns out, it was actually two true road games against two opponents that made the NAIA National Tournament last season. The Statesmen ended up leaving Indiana 2-0, with 9Mwins over #25 IU South Bend and Bethel (IN).
- #10 Carroll (MT)
- The Fighting Saints moved to 7-0 last night with a win over #24 College of Idaho. It was a defensive battle, but Carroll comes out of the Montana Tech Classic 2-0 with a Top 25 win under their belt.
- RV Grace (IN)
- Grace was able to win both games on their home floor this weekend. The final game was against a tough West Virginia Tech team. The Lancers will have to wait until Wednesday, for the official NAIA coaches poll, to see if they have slid inside the Top 25 or not. The Lancers have looked really good on their way to a 6-0 record to start the season.
- Ottawa University of Arizona
- Last and certainly not least, the Spirit made it two straight weeks of having a NAIA team knock off a NCAA D1 when they went to Denver University and walked away 72-71 winners. This was no last second fluke though as the Spirit took a 15 point lead into halftime and held on late for the win! OUAZ is just in their 5th year as a program and Coach Matt Keeley has done an incredible job building up the program. A disciple of Rocky Lamar, you know that Coach Keeley knows how to win games!
- William Jessup (CA)
- Women’s Teams:
- Mount Vernon Nazarene (OH)
- Coming off of two straight losses, MVNU bounces back with a BIG win over #2 Thomas More. This was a game that was a rematch of last years Round of 16 game. A game in which TMU won by 20pts. This time around though, Sage Bannon and MVNU used a big 4th quarter to get the win. Bannon finished with 25pts and 9rebs.
- #11 Indiana Wesleyan
- 2-0 weekend in the Leah Whittaker Memorial Classic. The Wildcats bounced back from last weeks 31pt loss, to #17 Central Methodist, quite nicely with a Top 25 win on Friday over Clarke. They then followed it up on Saturday with a 10pt win over Missouri Baptist.
- RV Northwestern (IA)
- A team that should be ranked inside the Top 25 this week as they moved to 4-0 with 2 wins, including their 2nd win over a Top 15 team. After smashing Valley City State on Friday. The Raiders knocked off #4 Marian on Saturday.
- Freed Hardeman (TN)
- The Lions moved to 3-0 with two home wins this weekend by a combined 47pts. The latter of the two wins was a 14pt win over a tough Faulkner team. The Lions haven’t played a ton this year, but head into Mid-South play with some confidence.
- Mount Vernon Nazarene (OH)
– Men’s Top Performances:
- There were so many great performances this weekend. It is hard to cover them all, but we will try to give you some of the ones that really stood out to us!
- Mason Walters 6’9 Sophomore, Jamestown: Continues his dominance on NAIA opponents with a 29pt, 17reb game against rival Valley City State!
- Frankie Davidson 6’7 Sophomore, Grace: Grace Classic MVP with 19.5ppg, 6rpg. The D2 transfer from UIndy has been a great addition for the Lancers.
- Kamari Newman 6’3 Super Senior, William Penn: Avg 37pts, 5.5rebs, 2.5apg including going 19-30 from 3 and hitting a game winner!
- David Ejah 6’7 Jr., St Francis (IN): Named BEVO Francis Tournament MVP after back to back double-doubles. 13pts, 12rebs in Game 1. 30pts, 12rebs in Game 2!
- Alex Gross 6’10 Senior, Olivet Nazarene: 26pts, 17rebs, 6assts, 4blks in CCAC win against Cardinal Stritch.
– It is the Sunday before the Top 25 Coaches Poll gets released. Which means we will have our Media NAIA Top 25 out later tonight!
– NHR-The Podcast, Episode 2 will also be out tomorrow morning! If you missed Episode 1, you can catch back up here:
Fab Four Preview – Road To Muni Podcast
We are down to the final three games of the season as College of Idaho, Ottawa (AZ), Georgetown and Indiana Tech make up your NAIA Fab Four teams and tipoff on Saturday! In this episode, Junior and Pat dive deeper into the games, the paths of each team and more!
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