Well, we sure weren’t short on great games yesterday! Every league seemed to have a game winning shot and we saw several upsets happen across the NAIA. On the Men’s side, we had 23 games that were within 10pts and 17 of those games were 5pt games or less! With another 13 games being below 10pts on the Women’s side, it just made for a fun, crazy night of basketball!
– Games of the Day Recap – Men
- Warner 86 – Keiser 58
- Okay, so not EVERY game was a close one as one of our Starting Five members from yesterday, DJ Mercer, went off for 28pts to help Warner route Keiser to move to 4-0 in league play and alone atop The Sun Conf. standings!
- #8 SAGU 79 – RV John Brown 74
- SAGU was able to overcome a 12pt 1st half deficit on their way to the home SAC win last night. Starting Five team captain, Nykolas Mason led the way for the Lions with 24pts. Fellow All-American, Luke Harper, had a game high 28pts to lead JBU.
- #9 OKWU 75 – #25 Bethel (KS) 73
- Bethel got off to a slow start, but was able to get the lead down to just 1pt at the half. The second half was a doozy as well, but ultimately it was DJ Talton’s put back with .1 seconds left that won the game for OKWU and gave yet another heart breaking loss to Bethel. OKWU was able to survive the Jaylon Scott 8pts, 14asst, 22reb performance last night. It’s no wonder that NBA Scouts from the Mavs and others are headed out to watch him!
- RV Montana Tech 87 – Montana Western 75
- Jalen Hodges was once again great for Montana Western, but it wasn’t enough last night as Montana Tech got the rivalry win behind 18pts from Sindou Diallo! The All-American put on a show once again, including another filthy dunk!
- RV Westmont 82 – #6 Arizona Christian 80
- The GSAC had proven earlier this year that it is nearly impossible to go get a road GSAC win. However, this Westmont team, that we tried to put people on with our rankings last week, proved that winning on the road in the GSAC is possible. As the Warriors claimed their 2nd Top 25 win of the young season to move to 9-0 on the season. While Freshman, Nate Meithof had another big game with 20pts, 9rebs, 4assts and 4stls. It was the Senior, Ajay Singh who had a game high 24pts for the Warrior win.
- Hope International 83 – RV Menlo 74
- We have talked about this HIU team a lot. They have a couple really bad losses, but they continue to also get some really good wins including last night on the road versus Menlo. HIU was led by Charles Neal, who came off the bench to score 16pts in the win.
– Other Notable Games:
- Another team we were higher on then the Coaches Poll, Pikeville, got a 12pt road MSC win over Life.
- In SSAC play, #2 Loyola and #5 Talladega both pulled out close wins on the road!
- #16 Thomas More survived a scare on the road at Cumberland (TN) as reigning MSC Player of the Week, Ryan Batte knocks in the game winner at the buzzer!
- #4 Carroll also survived, beating MSU Northern 73-71. MSU Northern’s Mascio McCadney and David Harris combined for 52 of the teams 71pts. Jovan Sljivancanin had 22pts, 9rebs to lead Carroll once again.
- #16 The Master’s overcame an 11pt halftime deficit to get an OT road GSAC win over RV Ottawa (AZ). Freshman Davian Brown was great once again!
– Games of the Day Recap – Women
- #1 Campbellsville 67 – Freed Hardeman 56
- New #1 Campbellsville was able to control all four quarters of play last night. However FHU seemed to just hang around all night but just couldn’t find the run to get them control of the game. Kaitlynn Wilks came off the bench to score 16pts in the win.
- RV Georgetown 69 – RV Bethel (TN) 52
- This is a tough Georgetown team that knocked off a D1 team already this season, but found themselves in an early hole in this one. It didn’t last long though as the Lady Tigers were able to cruise to the win to move to 8-1 on the year.
- RV Columbia 67 – RV Lyon 53
- Another game that looked a lot better on paper, but the Lady Cougars had other plans tonight as they cruised to the 14pt AMC win. Mackenzie Dubbert led the way with 16pts in the win!
– Other Notable Games:
- #8 Sterling got upset by Kansas Wesleyan. Kelcey Hinz led the way with a monster 28pt, 24reb double-double. She has done this twice against Sterling now. The last time was January of 2020 when she had a 31pt and school record 25rebs in the game.
- #23 Loyola couldn’t cap off the comeback as they fall to William Carey in OT.
- Alice Lloyd Lady Eagles knocked off NCAA D2 Emory and Henry.
