Superbowl, Game Recaps, Top 25 and Other NAIA Bullet Points

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• Good Morning NAIA Hoops Nation!!! Happy Superbowl Sunday to you all. I shouldn’t say this too loud with the area I live in, but GO NINERS!

• Our Top 25 will be out early in the afternoon, before the Superbowl, so as you are getting your food ready, or having a few cokes to get ready for the big game, make sure you take a look!

• As far as Saturday’s games go, we had 6 games circled to follow. We had 3 games from NAIA DI that had some good implications on the line. The first of which was a game in the American Midwest Conference where #21 Central Baptist beat Harris-Stowe 97-76 to keep their 1 game lead in the AMC. Harris-Stowe has the AMC Player of the Year in Deshawn Munson, and he continued his impressive year with 29 points and 8 assists, but Central Baptist shot 63% as a team in the 2nd half to blow this game open and coast to their 15th win of the season.

• #12 Lewis-Clarke St beat #8 Providence 96-65 in our 2nd circled game from yesterday. The win moves them to 21-1 on the season, and this team looks like a real force to return to the NAIA DI Final Four. Trystan Bradley had a career night, as he led the Warriors with 25 points. Head Coach Austin Johnson truly is one of the best young coaches around. His Warriors have beaten NCAA DI Idaho in back to back years, and will be a team no one will be happy to see on their side of the bracket in Kansas City.

• The last of our DI circled games was the matchup that saw #1 Georgetown go on the road to take down #14 Pikeville 76-63. Pikeville showed a lot of fight in this one, and closed the gap to 4 points in the 2nd half, before Georgetown was able to get control back of the game and increase their lead back to double figures. With just 1 NAIA win this semester, Pikeville’s NAIA leading streak of consecutive Top 25’s is going to come to an end. Georgetown was led by Jacob Conway’s 26 points.

• In our first DII circled game, we had a Final Four type battle as #8 Marian took down a very hot #2 Indiana Wesleyan team 89-87 in Overtime. The two best teams in the very, very good Crossroads League didn’t dissapoint in this one, as Marian survived a 34 point outing from Kyle Mangas by countering with a BIG 19 point 17 rebound double-double from Cameron Wolter. Marian moves to 19-5 on the season, and is just 1 game back of IWU for the Crossroads League title.

• WVU Tech continued their hot play last night as they took down #12 IU Kokomo 77-71 in River States Conference play. Junior Arrey led the Golden Bears with 16 points and 12 rebounds. We mentioned it last night on Twitter, but the job 1st year Head Coach James Long is doing at WVU Tech is impressive. He has his Golden Bears contending for a River States title as they have won 9 of their last 11 games.

• Our last circled game of the day featured a very good #14 Keiser team getting a gritty 81-76 road win over Warner. Keiser found themselves down at half 38-41, but Mark Gordon continued his All-American type year with a 28 point game. There are a lot of good players in The Sun Conference, but Gordon may have locked up The Sun Player of the Year award. This Keiser squad is long, and athletic and have the star power you need at the NAIA DII National Tourney.

• All-American Mitchell Fink had a big weekend for #5 Oregon Tech. In Friday’s win over Northwest, Fink had 40 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. He followed that effort up with a 29 point, 3 rebound, 7 assist night last night in Oregon Techs win over Evergreen. The 2x Cascade Player of the Year, is just a phenomenal player.

• Bethel home wins still bring on our favorite winning tradition:

• Again, we plan to have our NAIA DI and DII Top 25’s out between 2-2:30pm today. Our team has sent in their lists, and have worked hard to come up with the best Top 25’s we can. Enjoy your Superbowl Sunday, and once again GO NINERS!!!

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