- Good Morning NAIA Hoops Nation! We are winding down our last two days of the NAIA DII regular season, and about to enter our last week of the NAIA DI season. I won’t lie, it will be nice not having to type that next year when we move to 1 division! For now though, it is nice to enjoy the last season of two divisions, and especially enjoy watching the end of one of the best Senior Classes that I can remember!
- To start our DI circled games list off from last night, We saw Park defeat #21 Central Baptist 61-57 to put the two teams into a tie for 1st place in the American Midwest Conference! The AMC is starting to get really interesting, as Freed-Hardeman also had a big win, to move them to just a half game back of 1st place.
- Moving on to our circled game in the Mid-South, #18 Thomas More felt no added pressure from their first ever NAIA ranking, as they rolled to a 77-49 win at Campbellsville. The Mid-South is starting to take shape, but the log jam for the 5th-7th seeds are going to be interesting, as all 3 teams (Lindsey Wilson, Campbellsville, Pikeville) ALL have a VERY tough final two games. This will be an interesting final week for the bottom half of the Mid-South.
- #10 Faulkner used a HUGE 2nd half to rally and beat #16 Loyola 93-88 for their 14th straight win. Faulkner currently sits a game up in the Southern States Athletic Conference Standings. The SSAC still has a lot to sort out, but for now IF both Faulkner and Dalton State win on Saturday, the conference championship will be on the line when the two meet next week!
- Moving to our NAIA DII Circled Games from last night, Webber International got a HUGE 89-69 Sun Conference win over Coastal Georgia. The win moves them into the 6th and final playoff spot, and they will take the 1 game lead into the final regular season game on Saturday. A win @ Thomas and they are in The Sun Conference Tournament.
- We headed out to the West Coast for our final NAIA DII Circled Game. #12 Antelope Valley survived a great shooting night from UC Merced to get the 74-70 win. It was their 15th straight win, with their last loss coming back in Mid-December. We now know the 4 teams who will be in the CalPac Tournament, but the Saturday games will help to determine the seeding for the Tourney.
- The Keelhaulers will be in the Cal Pac Tournament. They got this great tip in for their win last night!
- Moving on to one of the top plays of the night! Quite the sequence from Colen Gaynor of Science & Arts!
- A huge shoutout and congratulations to Bryan Battle of Freed-Hardeman on joining the 1K club last night!
- Also congratulations to ElJay Cowherd who is the new All-Time career assist leader at Georgetown!
- We want to end this mornings bullets with a new NAIA Show that we are excited to watch grow! The guys at Champion Sports Network (@CSN_NAIA) have a new show “Buzzer Beater” that will focus on NAIA news. Their 1st episode hit YouTube last night, and I would encourage everyone to check them out!
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