I saw @CBKReport do this on Twitter/X for D1 men’s basketball and thought it was a fun way to do a recap. While that account was the graphic only, and had different categories, I thought we would share some thoughts and some stats behind each selection as well. Moving forward, if you want to nominate someone for a category, please feel free to send them our way! Hopefully, you all enjoy the uniqueness of the recap!
BEST WIN | Grace (IN)
Giving this one to Grace (IN) this week for their 93-83, Crossroads League road win over No. 3 Indiana Wesleyan. Luckey Arena is one of the toughest venues for road to teams to win at in the entire NAIA. Grace has now done it two years in a row and have actually beaten IWU 5-straight times. The Lancers had a big week to move to 2-0 in Crossroads League action with wins over Marion and IWU. They moved to 5-2 on the season.
UPSET | Warner (FL)
Warner (FL) gets the biggest upset of the week. The Royals knocked off No. 15 Florida Memorial, 99-95 on the road! Coming into the game the Royals had lost a lot of close games, but had only one other win against an NAIA opponent. The Royals were finally able to close a game out and get a big win! Blaize Darling was spectacular with 29pts and 10rebounds!
OFFFENSE | Dordt (IA)
Known as the Dordt Defenders, it’s actually offensively where Dordt is making its living at the moment! In two GPAC wins this week the Defenders scored 110 points vs Waldorf and 102 points vs No. 9 Concordia. In those games they combined to go 24-59 from 3 (41%) and were 82- 138 from the field (59%). They had 45 assists on those 82 FG’s and amazingly with all of those possessions, they only turned the ball over 16 times in those two games.
DEFENSE | Oklahoma Wesleyan
Those that have watched Oklahoma Wesleyan play in the past know that they will get after it on the defensive end of the floor. This past week, with two KCAC wins, the Eagles held Friends and Kansas Wesleyan to just 13-56 from 3 (23%) and 40-122 (33%) from the field. OKWU forced 21 turnovers, blocked 8 shots and in the KWU game, the Eagles held KCAC Player of the Year candidate, Alex Littlejohn, to 1-7 from the field for just 2 points to go with 7 rebounds.
COACH OF THE WEEK | Jordan Weidner and Stephen Halstead, Grace (IN)
In this case, Coaches of the Week: Jordan Weidner and Stephen Halstead of Grace. The Associate Head Coaches have stepped up big in the absence of Head Coach, Scott Moore. There was a time, where the Lancers, lost back-to-back games and we all probably panicked a little too early. Coach Weidner and Coach Halstead, who have been taking turns as the Active Head Coach for each game, have ‘righted the ship’ and led the Lancers to five straight wins including to two wins this past week against Marian and No. 3 IWU to move to 2-0 in the Crossroads League!
STOCK UP | Ottawa (KS)
A year after taking Texas College to the National Tournament, Matt Cross now has the Ottawa Braves siting at 7-1 with their only loss coming to a good Baker squad who currently sits inside the Top 25. The Braves are 3-0 in KCAC play and tied atop the KCAC Standings after taking down both Tabor and McPherson this week. They will take a visit over to Winfield to face Southwestern (KS) later this week. Right now, the Braves are a team to keep an eye on out in the KCAC!
STOCK UP | Bethel (IN)
This is a Pilot team that is 8-0 and coming off a road Crossroads League win over Huntington. The same Huntington team who had just knocked off No. 3 Indiana Wesleyan earlier in the week. Bethel still isn’t fully healthy, so eager to see what they look like when they can get everyone back. They are going to finish off 2024 with six more games against Top 25 or RV teams including later this week against No. 5 Georgetown! Coach Steve Drabyn has his Pilots playing good basketball!
STOCK FALLING | Florida Memorial
This team has the talent and is well coached so we suspect will be fine. Started off the week with another loss to Warner. They did end the week with a win over New College of Florida. Will be fun to see how they rebound here in the ‘Battle at the Beach’ and then they have a couple weeks fully off to prepare for Indiana Wesleyan and Bethel (IN) who will be coming to Miami Gardens in Mid-December!
GAME OF THE WEEK | No. 13 Huntington (IN) defeats No. 3 Indiana Wesleyan, 97-88
Not all Game of the Week’s will be Top 25 games nor do all Top 25 games live up the hype! However, this one was a ton of fun! A game that saw Huntington trailing by 12 points with under 13 minutes to play, Drew Goodline sparked a Forester 21-0 run that would put them up 9. IWU would close the gap to five, but every time they did, Huntington closed the door with a big shot. Both teams, have special players on the offensive side of the floor and if you got the chance to watch the game, it was truly a highlight of how good some of the talent at the NAIA level is!
ONIONS | Matthew Stilwill, Briar Cliff (IA)
We had quite a few buzzer beater this week, but Matthew Stilwill’s was one that gave Briar Cliff a win over their crosstown rival, Morningside, who was coming off a win against No. 9 CUNE. The rivalry buzzer beater win helps to make it the “Onions” Play of the Week!
PLAYER OF THE WEEK | Shaunn Monroe, Lourdes (OH)
Hard to look past the Nation’s leading scorer, Shaunn Monroe, and what he is doing at Lourdes. In two games this past week, Shaunn helped Lourdes to a 2-0 record while going for 31pts | 3rebs | 4assts | 3stls against Madonna and 26pts | 4rebs | 2stls. He did that while shooting 59% from the field and 50% from 3!! The 5’11 Senior guard from Charleston, West Virginia has four games of 30+ pts in Lourdes six games this season.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK | Evans Appolon, Kansas Wesleyan
Evans Appolon had 14 blocks and 7 defensive boards in 2 games for KWU this week. Including setting a new program record with 11 blocks, on his birthday, against McPherson. Averaging 7 blocks per game during the week and setting a new program record with 11 in a game earns you our Defensive Player of the Week award!
RODMAN PLAYER OF THE WEEK | Corey Dunning, Xavier (LA)
With this one, we wanted to celebrate a former NAIA player in Dennis Rodman, by giving out a weekly award to the player who may or may not score a lot of points but who always rebounds the ball! Corey Dunning of Xavier (LA) gets that honor this week as he combined to score 6pts but grabbed 13 rebounds in his teams wins this week!
SOPHOMORE OF THE WEEK | Yorgio Golesis, Oklahoma City
Yorgio, in three games this past week, averaged 18.6ppg | 2.6rpg |4.6apg. He is playing nearly 40 minutes every game, so with OCU playing five SAC games in nine days, Yorgio is in need of an ice bath!
FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK | Kaiden Francis, Mobile (AL)
There were a ton of great Freshman performances this week. However, with the passing of Mobile Freshman, Kaiden Francis, early in the week and him coming off his best game of the season the week prior against Life (GA) with 10pts | 3rebs | 3assts. We are going to go ahead and honor Kaiden with the Freshman of the Week honors this week. RIP Kaiden.
DUNK OF THE WEEK | Joran Decuir, LSU-Alexandria
There were a lot of great nominees for this award this week. However, we are giving this one to LSU-Alexandria’s, Jordan Decuir, who had this poster against Texas College.
