- Good Morning NAIA Hoops Nation! A lot of great games yesterday, hopefully you were able to catch a few!
- Just a reminder that the game recaps that we select are from our “games we have circled to watch” posts that we do on Twitter. Here are yesterday’s Game Recaps:
- NAIA DII
- #5 College of Idaho 77 – #2 Oregon Tech 65
- This Cascade Conference matchup featured two teams that can make a serious run at a National Title. They say that defense travels, and boy did it for CoI. They held Oregon Tech to just 36% from 3, and only 42FG% for the entire game. CoI also pounded the glass and out rebounded OiT by 12. It was a great road conference road win for CoI. Game Recap|Box Score
- Eastern Oregon 96 – #18 Southern Oregon 107 OT
- Staying in the Cascade Confernce, we like this Eastern Oregon team and thought this could have the makings for a really good game. We were right, as Eastern controlled the game early and led at half 35-20. However, Southern Oregon came screaming back in the 2H to force overtime. The Raiders controlled the entire overtime to get the comeback win behind Tate Hoffman’s 30 point performance. Game Recap|Box Score
- #22 Keiser (FL) 82 – #7 Dakota Wesleyan 75
- A great bounce-back win for Keiser, who was coming off only their 2nd loss of the season. Mark Gordon continues to prove he’s one of the best players in the country, as he finished the game with 28 points in the win. Game Recap|Box Score
- #15 Spring Arbor (MI) 80 – #11 Ave Maria (FL) 74
- With all the SAU fans who made the trip to Florida and you could hear making noise, I am not sure this was a road atmosphere, but on paper, SAU still gets a really nice Top 15 road win. This game lived up to the hype the entire game, with Spring Arbor finding themselves down 35-31 at the half. However, Paul Marandet is good at basketball, as the 2019 National Tournament MVP, and All-American posted a 29 point, 12 assist, 5 rebound stat line in the win. Leo Behrend continued to look like an All-American for Ave Maria as well, as he also had a 29 point and 9 rebound game. Game Recap|Box Score
- NAIA DI #1 The Master’s (CA) 62 – NAIA DII #25 Antelope Valley (CA) 75
- Antelope Valley stayed undefeated at home with a HUGE win for the program over NAIA DI #2 The Master’s. First year head coach Jordan Mast has his team playing some great defense, and they have used that to knock off 3 ranked NAIA DI opponents already this season. In last nights win, they held 2 time NAIA Player of the Week, Brock Gardner to just 8 points. Kamal Holden led the way with a game high 23 points and 10 rebounds, while Ronnie Rousseau chipped in 17 points, despite fouling out with 7 minutes left in the game. Game Recap|Box Score
- A big congrats to NAIA DII #14 Lourdes (OH) on their win over NCAA D2 Ashland. We have been talking about Lourdes for awhile now, and were the first to throw them into the Top 25! They are a talented and well coached squad, that can play with anyone in the country.
- The NAIA Football National Title game is today as well. Best of luck to both Marian and Morningside as they battle it out down in Louisiana!! The game is on ESPN3, and I personally, will have it on alongside of some of the great NAIA basketball games we have today!
Antelope Valley’s defense was good but Gardner got hurt and missed most of the 2nd half. Masters other starting forward hurt his shoulder in this game and didn’t return. 6’11 Soares sat out his 3rd game as well. Much needed Holiday break for them.