Best Win | Grace (IN)
This time of year there are always plenty of BIG wins. For Grace though, who were coming off a home loss to No. 16 Huntington, this game had a LOT at stake. A Bethel win would have meant that the Pilots were the outright Crossroads League Champions. Instead, Grace went into Mishawaka and get the huge win to pull into a tie with Bethel in the Crossroads League standings. Both teams have two games to go and if both remained tie, whoever is ranked higher in the RPI standings will be win the tie-breaker for the 1-seed in the CL Tourney!
Upset | Embry-Riddle (AZ)
Hope International was in a 3-way tie for 1st place in the GSAC until Embry-Riddle hit a buzzer beating 3 to pull off the upset! It was a huge win for Embry as they currently sit alone in 4th place in the GSAC. A league who only has four teams advancing to the GSAC Tournament!
Offense | Reinhardt (GA)
The Eagles went 2-0 this past week with wins AT Bryan and AT St. Andrews. They scored a total of 238pts in those two games to win our Offensive team of the Week!
at Bryan | 117pts (42%FG, 42%3FG, 90%FT), 18ORB, 18 assists on 36 made shots, just 11 turnovers
at St. Andrews | 121pts (55%FG, 42%3FG), 14ORB, 22 assists on 44 made shots
Defense | Spring Arbor
The Cougars, who were coming off a tough OT loss at Taylor, responded with a 2-0 week that included a road win at No. 14 Huntington. Spring Arbor was really tough defensively, especially from 3pt line, in the two wins as they held both teams under 70pts with Huntington scoring 25pts below their season average with just 58 total points.
vs Goshen | 68pts (43%FG, 24%3FG), only gave up 5ORB
at Huntington | 58pts (46%FG, 18.8%3FG), only gave up 8ORB and held HU to just 25 points in the 2nd half.
Coach of the Week| Dan Pearson, Carroll (MT)
After being picked dead last in the Frontier Conference preseason poll, Coach Dan Pearson has Carroll in a 3-way tie for 3rd place and just a game back of 1st headed into the final week of the regular season. Carroll has won 4 of their last 5 games including beating the Top 2 teams in the league this past week! The Saints will host Rocky Mountain and then head to last place MSU-Northern to round up the regular season! Another 2-0 week and the Saints could end up with a Top 3-seed in the league! The Saints start 3 Freshman! On a side note, Coach Pearson actually had two nominations sent in from other coaches!
Stock Up | Texas A&M Texarkana
Texarkana is trying to make a late season charge to put themselves in position to make a trip to the National Tourney. They have now won 6-straight games, sit in 3rd place in the RRAC! 1st year Head Coach, Darion Brown has his Eagles playing their best basketball at the right time of the year. They have two tough but winnable road games this week and if they can make a run in the RRAC tourney, the Eagles can still sneak an at-large selection! We currently have them as a 1st Four OUT. So, with work to still do, this is a team to keep an eye on down the stretch!
Stock Up | John Brown
John Brown has moved into 2nd place in the Sooner Athletic Conference after 5 straight wins. They are on the Bubble and currently sitting on the IN line, but have two very tough road games coming up as they head to Nelson and then to UNT-Dallas. Still have some work to do to get an at-large bid, but if they can finish in the Top 3 of the SAC Standings and don’t lose in the 1st round of the SAC Tourney, they should have a great shot!
Stock Falling | Montana Tech
Unfortunately, Brayden Koch went down with injury and it has led to 4-straight losses for the Ore Diggers. The Frontier Conference has 5 of 6 teams separated by just 1-game now. Montana Tech was the heavy favorites just a month ago. They are still a sure bet to make the NAIA National Championships, but they need a couple wins here to keep their seed line from falling!
Game of the Week | Life defeats Middle Georgia, 98-97 in 2OT
Life has won 12 of it’s last 13 games, with their only loss coming in a double-OT game at William Carey! This Middle Georgia game was a ton of fun to watch! Life held a 10pt lead with 15min to play, only to see MGA come fighting back down the stretch to tie the game up and send it to OT! Then in OT, Life had a chance to win at the buzzer again and missed, sending it to a 2nd OT! This was a game where you felt like whoever had the ball last was going to win it. Middle Georgia had the ball last, but the Knights were unable to execute and win it.
Onions | Jacey Canalin, Embry-Riddle (AZ)
The 5’7 Freshman hits the biggest shot of his young career as Embry-Riddle upsets No. 22 Hope International at the buzzer!
Player of the Week | Chaze Harris, Life (GA)
Chaze once again filled the stat sheet helping Life to a 2-0 week! This is the 2nd time he has won our Player of the Week award! His ability to fill the stat sheet both, on both sides of the ball, has Chaze in the running for National Player of the Year!
vs Middle Georgia State | 25pts, 8rebs, 7assts, 7stls
vs Abraham Baldwin Agricultural | 23pts, 8rebs, 8assts, 7stls
Defensively Player of the Week | Ben Rice, Johnson (TN)
The 6’10 Rice was a monster as a rim protector this week as he had 4 blocks in their upset win over Cumberlands and then followed that up with a 7 block performance against Montreat. Ben also added in 11 defensive rebounds against Cumberlands and 7 defensive rebounds in the Montreat win.
Rodman | Vincent Miszkiewicz, Keiser (FL)
Vincent is always up for the defensive award as well, but as one of the top rebounders in the country, we moved him to the Rodman Award this week! Vincent had a monster 19 rebound performance in Keiser’s win over Ave, as they took over 1st place in the Sun Conference. He now has 17 games of 15+ rebounds on the season!
Sophomore | Isaiah Malone, Saint Francis (IN)
Isaiah has been one of the most dominating bigs in the country this year! He has 7 games of 20+pts on the season. He continued that dominance in two wins this week!
vs MVNU | 29pts (12-16FG), 6rebs, 4assts, 2blks, 1stl
vs Marian | 24pts (7-10FG), 9rebs, 4assts, 1stl
Freshman | Kosta Bjelicic Loyola (LA)
The 6’9 Bjelicic had two of his best games of the season as Loyola knocked off the Top two teams in the SSAC this past week!
vs Mobile | 16pts (53%FG), 11rebs, 2assts, 1stl, 1blk
vs Dalton State | 22pts (63%FG), 6rebs, 2assts, 2blks
Dunk | Damian Garcia, Brescia
Damian Garcia, who just took over as the NAIA’s Top scorer at 24.9ppg, put down this EMPHATIC dunk this week against IU Kokomo! Damian has been electric this season!
