BEST WIN | Ave Maria (FL)
No. 23 Ave Maria defended their home floor on Saturday with a HUGE win over No. 15 Florida Memorial. The win put them back into 1st place in the SUN Conference. Between them, FloMo and Keiser, the SUN race is heating up and it’s been a fun back and forth battle between the trio!
UPSET | Grand View (IA)
Grand View has won now won 5-straight games as they knocked off No. 6 Baker at home this weekend. This was their 2nd Top 25 win of the season. The win streak has helped to catapult GV into the Top 8 for a chance to extend their season in the Heart Conference Tournament. Some tough games ahead, but HUGE win for the Vikings!
OFFFENSE | LSU Shreveport
Shreveport, in 3 games this past week scored 76, 99 and 118pts! The 76pts was against XULA, who is one of the better defensive teams in the NAIA.
vs XULA | 76pts, Shot 48% from 3,
vs Southwest (NM) | 99pts, 60% from the field, 52% from 3, 22assts on 36 made shots.
vs Paul Quinn | 118pts, 63.5% from the field, 59% from 3, 24assts. Taj Anderson goes for 53pts!!
DEFENSE | Pikeville (KY)
The Pikeville defense has really settled in! The Bears locked up again this week, in what was a BIG week for them as they once again sit in 1st place in the AAC and control their own destiny rest of the way. This week they held Bryan to just 55pts on 31% from the field and 17% from 3! The 55pts is 25pts below Bryans season average. They also held Truett McConnell to 69pts on 44% from the field and 30% from deep. The 69pts were 12pts below Truett’s season average!
COACH OF THE WEEK | Darnell Archey, Mobile (AL)
Three different coaches nominated Coach Archey for this award this week and he is SO deserving of it. Earlier this season, they tragically lost Kaiden Francis. Understandably so, Mobile lost a few games coming off of that tragedy. However, Mobile has now won 7-straight games, including handing No. 11 Dalton State, their first SSAC loss of the season this past week. Coach Archey and the Rams now sit at 16-4 on the season and are in 1st place in the SSAC West!
STOCK UP | Madonna (MI)
We’re going STREAKING! Madonna is making one heck of a late season push! The Crusaders were in Kansas City last season, returned a good portion of their team, but just couldn’t find any wins in the early part of the season. Madonna has now won 6-straight games though, to move to 14-9 overall. At 10-5 in WHAC play, they sit in 4th place, but just 1-game out of 2nd! If they can survive the road for two games this week, Madonna is sitting pretty and, once again, look like a real force to win a WHAC Tournament title!
STOCK UP | Morningside (IA)
The Mustangs are tough and scrappy and have now won 5-straight games, including two against Top 10 teams in Dordt and Northwestern. This is a fun Mustangs squad, led by Joey Skoff! Skoff is having another All-American season! The Mustangs host two games vs the bottom two teams in the GPAC, then will hit the road for two very tough rough games vs Dakota Wesleyan and Dordt, before finishing the regular season vs rival Briar Cliff!
STOCK FALLING | Rocky Mountain (MT)
Rocky has lost 4-straight games and 5 of their past 6 as the Battlin’ Bears, for the 2nd straight season, find themselves in a bit of a late season free fall. This is a talented group, when healthy, so they have some time to bounce back and will still be a threat in the FC tournament. The Bears start a tough 2-game road trip this week as they face Montana Western and Providence. Need to split at the very least!
GAME OF THE WEEK | William Carey defeats Life (GA) in double overtime
William Carey won this one 102-95 in double OT. Coach Steve Knight, this week, moved to just two games back of Cornerstone’s Kim Elders for the current lead in NAIA Coaches Active Wins with 788 career wins. This game was bonkers though as we saw 25 ties and 25 lead changes over the course of the 50minutes. For Life, Chaze Harris just missed out on a triple-double as he finished with 21pts, 11rebs and 7assts. Cortez Johnson 18pts, 10rebs and Tyreke Johnson 18pts, 10rebs both finished with double-doubles as well! William Carey got 34pts, 7rebs, 6assts from Dylan Brumfield. Ashton Campbell 25pts, 5rebs and Cam Brown 20pts, 4rebs were also in double figures. This game went back and forth for the entire 50 minutes as the largest lead in the game was just 8pts and that was as WCU was pulling away in the 2nd OT!
ONIONS | Keeley Blake, Montana Tech
No. 9 Montana Tech stayed undefeated at home this season as Senior, Kelley Blake called game with this jumper with .7 seconds left in the game! The win gives Tech a 2 game lead with 5 to play in the Frontier Conference!
PLAYER OF THE WEEK | Taj Anderson, LSU Shreveport
Taj put up video game like numbers in 3 games this week, including having the 1st 50pt outing in the NAIA this season. He has been spectacular, on both ends of the floor for Shreveport this season as he averages 20.4ppg, 3.6rpg, 2.6apg. This past week Taj averaged 31ppg, 3.6rpg, 3.6apg, 2spg. He shot 70% from 3 and 95% from the charity stripe!
vs XULA | 13pts, 4rebs, 2assts, 2stls. 1blk
vs Southwest (NM) | 27pts, 5-10 from 3, 4-4 from FT line. 4rebs, 6assts, 2stls
vs Paul Quinn | 53pts on 16-21 from the field, 10-15 from 3 and 11-11 from the FT line. He added in 3rebs, 3assts and 3stls.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK | Bradley Bunch, UPike
Bradley was up for several different categories and could have been selected as our Rodman Player of the Week as well, but he did enough to also earn our DPOW honors! He even saved his best game for a big win over Bryan to put the Bears in 1st place in the AAC!
vs Truett-McConnell | 29pts, 8rebs (7 defensive) and 1blk
vs Bryan | 18pts, 20rebs (19 defensive) and 3stls
RODMAN PLAYER OF THE WEEK | Montez Young Jr., Texas Wesleyan
We had SEVERAL good nominees for this category, but with a 15pt, 16reb, 2stl, 2blk performance off the bench this week in Texas Wesleyan win over USAO, Montez Young Jr. gets the nod!
SOPHOMORE OF THE WEEK | Jordan Brown, St. Mary (KS)
Jordan Brown is having a really nice season for USM, averaging 15.9ppg, 4.4rpg and 2apg! All while getting the honor to play for his dad! This past week, Jordan helped USM split their road trip with two good games.
vs Friends (KS) | 22pts, 3rebs, 2assts, 2stls, 1blk
vs Kansas Wesleyan | 18pts, 5rebs, 2assts, 1blk
FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK | Jalen Langsy, Northwestern (IA)
The guard half of the fantastic Freshman duo at Northwestern, Jalen has had a big time season! The smooth lefty scorer is averaging 16.3ppg on 49.2% from the field and 46.7% from 3! Kid is so fun to watch and had another BIG week for the Red Raiders!
vs Briar Cliff (IA) | 18pts, 7-13 from the field. 3rebs, 2assts, 3stls, 1blk
vs Doane (NE) | 27pts, 9-10 from the field and a perfect 7-7 from 3! He added 2 assts and 3stls in the NWC win!
DUNK OF THE WEEK | Ring Deng, Friends
In one of Friends most important games to date, Ring caught an ally-oop pass from Randy Woolf Jr. to send the Friends faithful into a frenzy! Friends went on to win the game and sit in 1st place in the KCAC!
