Our Daily Dive series is your daily rundown of what is happening around NAIA basketball. We feature game breakdowns, updates on players, coaches teams and leagues for both men’s and women’s basketball.
It was quite the night last night around the NAIA hoops world. While we didn’t get to see any of them pull out a win, we had several NAIA programs with chances to beat NCAA D1’s late into games yesterday. Made for some fun last few minutes of games. It was NOT however a great night for ranked opponents on both the Men and Women’s sides as we saw several go down in defeat. Last night also brought us several big time performances and milestones that were hit! All in all, it was another really fun night of basketball!
– Review of our Games of the Day:
- Men: Tennessee Wesleyan 98 – Montreat 96 OT
- What a great game last night. It’s what makes conference games so much fun. TWU was already considered a top contender to win the AAC. Montreat was one of our sleeper teams to win the league. They are a bit young, but they showed last night that they are a real threat to win the league. TWU jumped out to a early 16 point lead and looked like they were going to be able to control the game, but Montreat came storming back in the 1st half. The 2nd half it was actually Montreat who jumped out to an early 8pt lead before the Bulldogs went on a run to close the gap. From there it was back and forth all the way thru the end of OT. The 2nd half and OT were quite the show as TWU’s Bryant Bernard and Ty Patterson and Montreat’s Noah Dunn put on an absolute show!
- If you read our Game of the Day breakdown from yesterday you know that we highlighted Bryant Bernard from TWU and Noah Dunn from Montreat, and boy did they not disappoint. Byrant got off to a bit of a slow start in the 1st half, but when he’s cooking he is so tough. He finished the game with 21pts and 6rebs. Montreat 2nd year Freshman, Noah Dunn finished with a game high 33pts to go with 9 rebs. Jaja Davis chipped in with a 17pt, 11reb double-double in the loss.
- Men: #25 IU South Bend 79– Holy Cross 46
- IUSB had no intentions of letting us have two really good men’s games of the day! They jumped on Holy Cross from the tip and didn’t look back. Being a conference game and the fact that Holy Cross was coming off of a big win against Bethel (IN), we thought this game would be a lot better. Unfortunately, for Holy Cross, with all of the roster turnover they saw this season, they will be a bit inconsistent in the early parts of the season. IUSB was led by Spencer Pettit with 18pts and 6rebs.
- This IUSB team is really tough though. They have great guard play in Dylan Allen and Donyell Meredith, but it’s been the emergence of Spencer Pettit this season that has taken this IUSB team to another level. If he continues to be able to produce on the inside and out, it is going to help open up these guards and make this team really tough to beat. The Titans will welcome #4 William Penn to South Bend on Friday for a Top 25 showdown!
- Women: #15 Lyon 42 – RV Rust 54
- The Lady Bearcats of Rust are playing some GREAT basketball right now as they move to 7-0 on the season after knocking off #15 Lyon last night. While they are winning games by playing some great defense it’s Shay Johnson who continues to lead the offensive charge. Shay nearly scored half of her teams points last night as she dropped 25pts in the win. These two teams will meet again at the end of November, in what should be another great one, but for now this Rust team is rolling!
- Women: RV Dordt 71 – RV Bellevue 62
- This was a good, tough road victory by Dordt to back up their win this past week over #13 Dakota State and to move to 3-0 over North Star Athletic Conference opponents. This game was a pretty even contest for most of the 1st half before Dordt was able to gradually build their lead in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Hayden Heimensen led the Defenders with 20pts. Bellevue’s Elexis Martinez had a double-double with 14pts, 11rebs.
– Night of Upsets and Near Upsets:
- On The Men’s side:
- #3 SAGU fell on the road at Paul Quinn.
- #2 Saint Francis (IN) survived Great Lakes Christian
- RV Concordia (NE) who has most likely played themselves into the Top 25 in the next poll escaped a hot shooting Peru State team last night 91-90 on this shot:
- Northwestern (IA) women knocked off #11 MidAmerica Nazarene
- RV Rust defeated #15 Lyon
– Top Performances and Milestones:
- 23 rebounds in any game format is ultra impressive!
- Congrats to Missouri Valley Head Coach, Ben Lister, on his 200th win!
- Congrats to Columbia (MO) Head Coach, Taylor Possail, on his 100th win!
- Season high 21 points for LeAsia Linton as Union gets the AAC win!
- The performance of the night, David Ejah goes for 44pts and 16rebs to help #2 USF survive on the road!
- Double dose, as former NAIA All-American, Tim Cameron goes for 24pts and Fode Camara had a 10pt, 18reb double-double!
- Montreat didn’t win, but 2nd year Freshman, Noah Dunn continues to impress!
- Seth Maxwell goes for 26pts and 10rebs as the All-American big man dominated IU Southeast last night!
