The Bracket
Road To Muni Podcast
Crossroads League Tournament Breakdown
Crossroads Tournament Schedule
Wednesday, February 22 – Quarterfinals
7:00 pm — #1 GRA v #8 USF (at GRA) — Video ($) | Live Stats
7:00 pm — #2 IWU v #7 TU (at IWU) — Video ($) | Live Stats
7:00 pm — #3 HU v #6 MVNU (at HU) — Video | Live Stats
7:00 pm — #4 MU v #5 BU (at MU) — Video ($) | Live Stats
Saturday, February 25 – Semifinals
TBA — #1/8 v #4/5 — Video | Live Stats
TBA — #2/7 v #3/6 — Video | Live Stats
Tuesday, February 28 – Championship
7:00 pm — Video | Live Stats
*Each Match Hosted By the Better-Seeded Team
Quarterfinals Breakdown
No. 1 Grace vs No. 8 Saint Francis (IN)
The Grace Lancers have had a terrific season and earned the Crossroads League Regular Season Title. As much of a gauntlet as the CL Regular Season can be, the tournament is even tougher to win as is the case tonight when they face off against Antwaan Cushingberry and this feisty USF team. You could make an argument, like Loyola last season, that Grace features two National Player of the Year caliber players. This is a very balanced squad, so you won’t see the scoring leaders inside the Top 10 in the league, but Frankie Davidson and Elijah Malone are two of the best players in the entire country and with the Gibbs twins healthy, this is a very dangerous team. These two teams played just 11 days ago with Grace going to USF to complete the season sweep of the Cougars.
No. 2 Indiana Wesleyan vs No. 7 Taylor
IWU’s 7′ Seth Maxwell has had a terrific career. He continues to be one of the best players in the NAIA and has had some monster games this year. Spencer Piercefield and Noah Smith also returned back for their 5th Year and have been important staples to their lineup. The Wildcats, however, are also flashing signs of their future with the emergence of both Sophomore, Griffin Kliewer and Freshman, Javan Buchanan. Tonight, they host the CL’s leading scorer, Jason Hubbard and his Taylor squad. Taylor has lost 7 of its last 8 games coming into the tournament and haven’t been great on the road this season. This is the time of year for upsets though, so maybe Taylor can pull one off tonight. They did play IWU to a 6pt game just 2 weeks ago.
No. 3 Huntington vs No. 6 Mount Vernon Nazarne
The Foresters have once again found a way to play their best basketball at the right time of year. This is a group that is a lot of fun to watch and feature one of the best guards in the country in Zach Goodline and feature two of the Top 4 scorers in the CL in both Goodline and Lane Sparks. Tonight, they face one of the hottest teams in the league in MVNU. MVNU’s Kade Ruegsegger has been on an absolute terror as of late with 30+ pt performances in two of his past four games. Kyle Kegley struggled in the first matchup with Huntington, but answered back with 23pts when they faced off at Huntington 11 days ago. This has the making of one of the best games of the opening round!
No. 4 Marian vs No. 5 Bethel (IN)
Speaking of fun matchups!! Marian, when healthy, still remains one of the best teams in the NAIA. Taeshon Cherry is a beast and since coming back to the lineup had back-to-back games of 22 and 24pts. Bethel beat Marian on February 1st and the two teams and the two played to a 3pt game back in December. Drew Lutz has been one of the most electric scorers in the NAIA this season and even with his shooting volume he has proven to also be very efficient. He has two good games already against Marian this season and the Pilots need another big one out of him tonight if they are going to leave Indy with the win!
