Best Win | Multnomah (OR)
If I am being honest…I had Huntington’s win over Bethel slotted in here. It was probably the most impactful win, as I believe Huntington, not only is locked in for a 3-seed now, but I believe the win propelled them to earn one of the final four remaining host sites for the NAIA Opening Round.
But….the heart won over the mind on this one
Multnomah is shutting it’s doors at the end of the school year. As it happens in these situations, there are a lot of great coaches and players looking for new homes next season! The Lions played with the HEART OF A LION, to end the season. They played in a ton of close games, including a 1pt loss to No. 1 College of Idaho then a 5pt loss to No. 24 Oregon Tech. Both on the road. The Lions though would still earn a spot into the Cascade Conference Tournament, as the 7-seed, where they would have to, once again, hit the road to face Oregon Tech. Nomah played their hearts out and would knock off Oregon Tech, 84-75 to advance to the CCC semifinals! Unfortunately, that is where their season and Multnomah Basketball, would end.
Multnomah has several really good players worth recruiting and a good, young staff in Tayo Gem and Quinn Curry, who should be hired elsewhere!
Upset | Carolina University
Obviously, this time of year is never short on upsets, and we saw plenty of them across the NAIA during conference tournament action. Including the one above we just mentioned with the 7-seed, Multnomah taking down the 2-seed, Oregon Tech. HOWEVER, in the CAC, Carolina University, who was the 8-seed, not only knocked off No. 1, Florida College in the opening round, they would also go on to beat No. 5, New Mexico College and finally beat the CAC POY, Brandon Byone and No. 6 Spartanburg Methodist on their way to win the CAC Tournament and earn the CAC auto-bid into the NAIA Tourney! Aundree Polk, who joined the program at the semester break, had a big time 2nd semester on his way to Tournament MVP honors!
Offense | William Woods (MO)
The Owls, on their way to an AMC title in their final season in the AMC, were really good on both ends of the floor. They only gave up 54ppg in 3 AMC tourney games. However, the offense was also clicking!
vs HSSU | 117pts (59%FG, 41%3FG) 21 assists on 36 made FG’s with just 7 turnovers
vs Missouri Baptist | 78pts (48%FG, 26%3FG), 14 assists, 6 turnovers
vs Central Baptist | 85pts (43%FG, 40%3FG) 16 assists, 11 turnovers
Defense | Baker (KS)
Baker, in the Heart Title game, held Graceland scoreless for the final 9:38 of the game! That is nearly 10 minutes without giving up a single point! We have talked, before, about how Baker is one of the best defensive teams in the country! But holding a team scoreless for over 9 minutes is maybe one of the most impressive defensive stats you will ever come across! The Wildcats are having a big year. They won their first regular season conference title since 1989 and just won their first ever Heart Conference Tournament Title in program history! This is a team that can make a good run into Kansas City!
vs Graceland | 45pts (27FG%, 10%3FG), 11stls, 31 defensive rebounds and forced 17 turnovers!
Coach of the Week | Trent Miller, Morningside (IA)
Coach Miller is quickly becoming one of the best young coaches in the NAIA! This is a Mustang team who is a bit undersized in the post, but who has a ton of fight in them! The Mustangs opened up GPAC play with a win vs No. 5 Dakota Wesleyan and then went on the road to No. 1 Dordt and to No. 2 CUNE to claim the GPAC Title! Coach Miller, despite losing what always feels like a good core of Seniors, has been able to keep the program steady and moving forward! This is a Mustang squad that made it to Kansas City last year and has been a bit underrated for most of this year! Look for the Mustangs to continue to make noise next week in the NAIA Tourney!
Stock Up | St. Mary (KS)
The Spires are young, and with young teams they tend to go through some rough patches during the season. The Spires, midway through league play, were in 1st place in the KCAC Standings. Then, at the end of January and beginning of February, the Spires lost 3 straight games and 5 of 6 at one point, to slide down the KCAC Standings and put USM firmly on the bubble. Head Coach, Troy Brown, has rallied the troops as they will enter the NAIA National Championships having won 7 straight games, including winning the KCAC Tournament Title and an auto-bid into the NAIA National Tourney! His son, Jordan (Soph.), has been a catalyst in the resurgence of the Spires and fellow Sophomore Kaeden Bonner keeps hitting clutch shots! This is a FUN group headed into the National Tourney!
Stock Up | Life (GA)
Life was going to make it into the tourney either way, but I am not sure anyone did more for their seed line then Life did this past week! We had Life sitting on the 8/9 line coming into the SSAC Tourney. After capturing the SSAC Title, I believe they will be a 5-6 seed in the tourney! NPOY candidate, Chaze Harris has been phenomenal and is the type of player that can take over a game. Which is very important in these grind it out battles that we tend to see in tourney. Especially once teams get to Kansas City! Life may have to win a road game to get to KC, but they have the squad to make it!
Stock Falling | Lourdes (OH)
I LOVE this Lourdes team. They are talented enough to win a game in the tournament. Unfortunately, with their analytics, I think they really needed Indiana Tech to win the WHAC Championship last night and now will be sweating it out on Thursday!
Game of the Week | Morningside (IA) defeats Dordt (IA) in GPAC Semis
I really don’t even know where to begin on this one! This game featured 15 ties and 15 lead changes. No team had a lead greater than 10pts in the game. Brendan Buckley was a stud for Morningside with 28pts and 12rebs. Lucas Lorenzen was a beast with 29pts and Luke Rankin dished out 12 assists. It was just a great game, with an AMAZING environment and at the end of the day, Justin Sitti, with the game tied at 106, hit the game winner to help Morningside upset Dordt! Just a fantastic game all around!
Onions | Justin Sitti, Morningside & Lorenzo Wright, Arizona Christian
Both of these shots were so impactful that we couldn’t choose just 1!
Justin’s shot beat No. 1 Dordt in the GPAC semi’s, ultimately leading to Morningside winning the GPAC Title!
Lorenzo’s shot was IN the title game and won the GSAC Championship for Arizona Christian!
Bonus: A halftime buzzer beater from 3/4 court by Beau Jacquay
Player of the Week | Kashie Natt, LSU-Alexandria
Kashie is probably the current front runner for National Player of the Year. He is coming off of another big RRAC Tourney performance helping to lead teh Generals to back-to-back Championships. And of course, as great players do, he left his best for last, as he just missed out on a triple-double as he scored a season high 36pts in the Championship game!
vs Huston-Tillotson | 11pts, 6rebs, 3assts
vs TAMUT | 24pts, 17rebs, 2assts
vs Southwest | 36pts, 9rebs, 9assts
Defensively Player of the Week | Aundree Polk, Carolina University
Aundree Polk was a good player at Corban (OR) before turning up at Carolina University at semester. Polk showing up really turned this Carolina University team around. A Carolina team who only won 1 game until January, ended the season with 13 total wins, including 3-straight to win the CAC Tourney! Polk was once again magnificent on both ends of the floor.
vs Florida College | 15rebs (13 defensive), 2stls and 1blk
vs NNMC | 10rebs (9 defensive), 1stl
vs Spartanburg Methodist | 16rebs (15 defensive), 5stls
Rodman | Shon Tupuola, St. Mary-Woods
Shon is no stranger to the Rodman Award and the 6’9 Sophomore grabbed 37 rebounds in the River States Conference Tournament to earn himself another Rodman of the Week Award! Shon is averaging 14.6ppg/12.1rpg in his Sophomore campaign!
Sophomore | McCaskill Rivers, Milligan (TN)
Milligan won the AAC Tournament and a big part of that was the play of 6’7 Sophomore, McCaskill Rivers. In the TWU and Johnson games, Rivers scored nearly 1/3 of the Buffaloes points!
vs TN Wesleyan | 23pts, 6rebs, 2assts
vs Montreat | 22pts, 8rebs, 3assts
vs Johnson | 23pts, 7rebs, 7assts
Freshman | Isaiah Crane, Carroll (MT)
Going BACK-to-BACK! Crane’s Freshman campaign came to an end this week, but he once again put a stamp on why he is one of the best Freshmen in the NAIA! Crane averaged 20.5ppg, 5rpg and 1apg in Carroll’s two Frontier Conference games, including a 25pt outing in the opening round!
Dunk | Crew Gibson, Indiana Tech
Gibson is no stranger to our categories sheet as the Sophomore has been fantastic this year! He even put up a triple-double in the WHAC Tournament! He could have certainly made a case for other categories on this list, but he also had a nasty poster this week to earn Dunk of the Week!
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One response to “cONFERENCE TOURNAMENT RECAP BY CATEGORIES”
Montana Tech four years consecutive Frontier Conference regular season and conference tourney championships. CRAZY