- Good Morning NAIA Hoops Nation!! It was quite the night around the NAIA hoops world last night. We had upsets, some crazy games, some madness within a game, but we finished the night with Morningside winning the GPAC regular season title, and being the first team to punch their ticket to Sioux Falls, SD for the NAIA DII National Tournament.
- We will start last nights madness off with our DI Circled Game from last night, where Baker trailed by 19 points in the first half, before coming back to beat MidAmerica Nazarene 72-71. This Baker team has some good young talent, but it was the senior Charles Fisher who led the comeback as he scored 14 of his 24 points in the 2nd half. Freshman big man added in 11 points in the win. The most impressive thing about it is that Baker only shot 6 FT’s on the road and WON!! You don’t see that very often.
- That Baker win was big for them as they kept their 2.5 game lead, with 7 games left, for the 8th and final spot for the Heart Tournament. #7 William Penn and #24 Clarke both won on the road last night, so William Penn remains 1.5 games up in the league. However, the Benedictine loss to Missouri Valley pushed them to 3.0 games back of 1st, and 1.5 games back of 2nd.
- The Appalachian Athletic Conference got more fun last night as well. In our circled game we mentioned that Montreat needed a big home win against Columbia International to help keep pace with Union. Well not only did Montreat beat CIU 105-90, but Union got upset by Tennessee Wesleyan giving Montreat a half game lead in the AAC! Terrell Sheffey also joined the 1K club last night for Montreat! Congrats Terrell!!!
- In the Chicagoland, St. Francis got a big 87-68 win over Governors State. The win moves them to just 1.5 games back of that final playoff spot. They probably have to win out, and they have a tough remaining 3 games, but for now they kept their hopes of a playoff spot alive! Last night they won in commanding fashion as they basically led the entire game. Cole Micek, came off the bench and paced the Fighting Saints with 18 points.
- The GPAC got a little crazy last night as there were 4 upsets within the 5 games played. One of the upsets were on our featured games list, as Jamestown knocked off #18 Mount Marty 94-82, in a game that got a little crazy towards the end as I am not sure what exactly happened, or what was said, but there was an altercation that led to some T’s and an ejection. Whatever the case, the Jimmies are on a hot stretch right now as they make a BIG push to try and make it to Sioux Falls. Jack Talley scored 29 points and brought down 10 rebounds, while Mason Walters had 19 and 12 in the win.
- As mentioned in the opening bullet point, Morningside clinched the GPAC regular season title last night, becoming the 1st team to qualify for the national tournament. The seeding from there got a little crazy with the upsets, as there are 5 teams within 2 games of 2nd place Dakota Wesleyan. Briar Cliff is also making a late season charge, and pulled within 1.5 games of Hastings for the 8th and final spot. This has been a great league all year long, and will continue to fun during these last 5 games of the regular season.
- The Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference continues to get interesting as well. In our featured game, #24 Madonna defeated Indiana Tech 89-73. All-Americans Joshua Reynolds (25), and Dwight Burton (24) led the way for the Crusaders. The win was big in it’s own right, but became even bigger with #13 Lourdes getting beat by UM-Dearborn. Madonna moves to just 1 game back of 1st place with 4 games left to go.
- We didn’t have any of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference games on our circled games list last night (Not that they weren’t deserving), BUT after last nights games, look at this madness right now with 7 teams within 2 games of 1st place with most teams having 5 games left.
- EVERY game in the KCAC, over these last 5 games, will be BIG!!! Going to be an awesome finish!!
- Two other players joined the 1K Club last night and we want to make sure we give them a mention and say congratulations to both Trent and Ethan.
