Tournament Preview
NCAASports.com
Tournament Bracket
| Fri. - Game 1 (6 PM) |
St. Thomas def. Puget Sound, 86-69 |
Boxscore |
Recap |
| Fri. - Game 2 (8 PM) |
Washington (Mo.) def. Wheaton, 55-52 |
Boxscore |
Recap |
| Sat (7 PM) |
Washington def. St. Thomas 79 64 |
Boxscore |
Recap |
SECTIONAL FINAL -
Washington (Mo.) 79, St. Thomas 64
Wheaton, Ill. – The defending National Champion Washington University (Mo.) Bears defeated University of St. Thomas 79-64 on Saturday night in a Sectional Semifinal of the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament. Washington (27-2) has advanced to the NCAA Division III National Semifinal for the third consecutive year. St. Thomas ends the season with a 30-1 overall record.
St. Thomas led Washington 41-33 at halftime, as the Bears committed 17 first-half turnovers. Washington dominated the second half out-scoring the Tommies 46-23 following halftime. Washington shot 67.4% (29-43) from the field in the game and out-rebounded the Tommies 40-20.
Forward Tyler Nading led Washington with 28 points as he shot 10-of-11 from the field. Nading collected four assists, with eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Aaron Thompson scored 17 points, with nine rebounds and four assists. Sean Wallis scored 13 points, with 11 assists.
St. Thomas featured 11 players scoring, led by Tyler Nicolai with 15 points, draining three trifectas. Jake Dammann and Lonnie Robinson each scored seven points.
Washington shot a stellar 67.4% (29-43) from the field, 38.9% (7-18) from the three-point, with 70% (14-20) from three-point range. St. Thomas shot 40.9% (27-66) from the field, 33.3% (7-21) from behind the three-point arc and 42.9% (3-7) at the free throw line. The Bears held a 40-20 advantage in rebounding, with a 9-7 edge on the offensive glass.
Washington’s Sean Wallis was selected as the Sectional “Most Valuable Player”. Fellow Bear Tyler Nading was also on the tournament team, joined by Wheaton’s Kent Raymond, St. Thomas’ Tyler Nicolai and Puget Sound’s Jason Foster.
Washington coach Mark Edwards said of his team’s strong second half, “I think that the difference in the game was probably our experience and poise, maybe. I’m proud of our guys, but I would have been proud of them either way, so that’s immaterial. I just thought that when we had to dig down, we did it and we came through.”
St. Thomas coach Steve Fritz said following the game, “Obviously, it hurts. Two weeks ago, or last week or next week, when it’s over it hurts. We had a great run, there’s no question about it. I’ll take the heart-and-soul of this team and go to a game with them. There are so many great memories from this year, but it hurts today. But those memories will come back.” He added, “I’m extremely proud of the way our kids played all year. But we’ve got to give all the credit in the world to Wash U. You can see why they’re defending national champs and have such a great program.”
SECTIONAL SEMIFINAL #2 -
Washington 55, Wheaton 52
Wheaton, Ill. – Washington University (Mo.) defeated Wheaton College 55-52 on Friday in a Sectional Semifinal of the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament. Wheaton ends its tremendous season with a 26-4 record. Wash U (26-2) will face St. Thomas (Minn) at 7 PM on Saturday night in the Sectional Final, for the right to advance to NCAA Division III Final Four next weekend in Salem, Virginia. St. Thomas defeated Puget Sound 86-69 in the night’s other semifinal.
Wheaton led 4-2 early in the game, however, the Bears out-scored Wheaton 13-4 to take a 15-8 lead with 11:34 remaining in the first half. Wash U led for the remainder of the first half as the Bears held a 31-26 lead at halftime.
The Bears led 49-42 with 10:24 left in the game when Wheaton scored six un-answered points to cut Wash U’s lead to 49-48 with 7:24 remaining in regulation. Bear guard Aaron Thompson scored a basket to give his team a 51-48 lead with 5:06 left in the game and Thunder All-American #Kent Raymond# scored a basket to trim the Wash U lead to 51-50 with 4:37 left. Wheaton center Andy Wiele collected a rebound off of his own miss and scored off of a put-back to give Wheaton its first lead since early the first half, as the hosts held a 52-51 lead with 3:08 left in the game.
On Washington’s next trip down the court the Bears regained the lead as Sean Wallis made two free throws to give his team a 53-52 lead with 2:46 left in regulation. Bear forward Tyler Nading scored to increase his team’s lead to 55-52 with 2:08 remaining in the game. In a game that featured tremendous defense throughout, it was fitting that both teams held each other scoreless for the final two minutes. A Wheaton three-point-attempt with three-seconds remaining fell short, as the defending National Champions earned the win.
Raymond led all scorers with 22 points in his final collegiate game. Wheaton’s second all-time leading scorer ends his tremendous career with 2,308 career points. His career scoring total is the fourth-highest effort in CCIW history. He also leaves Wheaton as the school’s all-time three-point field goal leader, the all-time free throw leader and is in the Wheaton record books in more that 30 career, single-season and single-game records.
Raymond noted after the game, “It was tough walking off that court with all those fans there. Our mantra as a team all year has been ‘together’. We say it when we go out to play. It’s been a fun year. We’ve had some incredible accomplishments: winning the CCIW championship and tournament; making the Sweet 16. I’ve never played with a better group of guys than I did this season. I will truly, truly miss that camaraderie.”
Guard #Ben Panner# scored 20 points, with four three-point field goals. Panner and Raymond combined to score 42 of Wheaton’s 52 points in the game and 24 of the team’s 26 second-half points.
Wheaton senior #Andy Wiele# grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, with six points. Wiele ends his career with 811 career rebounds, the sixth-highest total in Wheaton College history. He also tallied 1,225 career points, the 29th-highest total in school history.
Wheaton head coach Bill Harris said, “I thought our defense was tremendous. We held the defending National Champion to 55 points. The thing is, Naismith years ago put a peach basket up there. Unfortunately, the peach basket was closed for us tonight. There was just a cover on the basket (for us).” He added, “Wash U played great defense though. Don’t take anything away from them. It was a great defensive battle. I thought both teams played really hard. Those were two great teams.”
Wallis led Washington with 18 points, six assists and four steals. Thompson scored 14 points, with five rebounds. Nading added seven points for the Bears.
Washington coach Mark Edwards noted after the game, “I thought both teams played great defense. I thought that when (Wheaton) got open shots, they had to work so hard to get them that they rushed it a little bit. Even thought they got the open shot, it wasn’t necessarily the shot that they wanted to take.” He added, “I know there was a lot of anticipation before the game and I thought it was a great Division III basketball game. I imagine most people expected more offense from both teams, but what they saw was great defensive will power. You know, that’s basketball too. When you get to championship play, sometimes that’s what you have to have to win.”
Wheaton shot 42% (21-50) from the field, with 26.3% (5-19) from three-point range and 55.6% (5-9) at the free throw line. The Bears posted a 50% (23-46) field goal percentage, with 35.3% (6-17) from behind the three-point arc and 50% (3-6) at the throw line. Wheaton held a 28-26 rebounding advantage, with an 8-4 edge on the offensive glass.
SECTIONAL SEMIFINAL #1 -
St. Thomas 86, Puget Sound 69
Wheaton, Ill. – The University of St. Thomas men’s basketball team defeated University of Puget Sound 86-69 on Friday night in a Sectional Semifinal of the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball team. With its win, St. Thomas (30-0) will play in the NCAA Division III Sectional Final on Saturday night at 7 PM (CST) in King Arena on the Wheaton College campus. Puget Sound ends the season with a 25-4 record.
St. Thomas never trailed in tonight’s game and the Tommies’ largest lead was 17 points in the final minute of the contest. Joe Scott led St. Thomas with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. B.J Viau scored 18 points, with six rebounds and four assists. The Tommies’ Tyler Nicolai scored 13 points, with three three-point field goals.
St. Thomas coach Steve Fritz noted, “We’re very pleased with the way we played. We knew going in the tempo that they like to play at and the tempo we like to play at. In some ways, they are similar. We felt we had to get them out of a running game and into a half-court game. I think we did a pretty good job of that. That’s where we thought we’d have the advantage.” Fritz added, “In this kind of a game there’s always going to be some streaks. Certainly, when they come at you hard and you turn it over a couple times, you give them a couple easy ones, you tend to get a little bit rattled. But I thought we came back every time after we gave up a couple. We’d counter and it never got to a point where you could really get rattled. We kept it pretty well at 10 (points) or more the whole second half. It was a pretty comfortable level.”
Puget Sound’s Jason Foster led all scorers with 23 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and he added five rebounds. Robert Krauel scored 15 points and Antwan Williams added 10 points, with six assists.
Puget Sound head coach Justin Lunt said after the game, “Hats off to St. Thomas. They are very well coached and did what they wanted to do. They might be one of the best passing teams I’ve seen since (UW) Stevens Point in 2005. They really pass the ball extremely well. They did a very good job against our pressure. I don’t think we ever got it going or got in a rhythm. We just couldn’t get into a flow. I think if you take away the second chance points it’s a whole new ball game.” He concluded, “I think St. Thomas is a pretty darn good team. Hat’s off to them; they hit shots on a neutral site.”
St, Thomas shot 54.4% (31-57) from the field, including 61.9% (13-21) in the second half. The Tommies shot 57.1% (8-14) from three-point range and 64.0% (16-25) at the free throw line in the game. Puget Sound shot 48.8% (21-43) from the field, with 26.7% (4-15) from three-point range and 85.2% (22-27) at the free throw line. St. Thomas out-rebounded Puget Sound 35-23 as the Tommies owned a 16-5 edge on the offensive glass.
UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND
The Loggers are in the Division III tournament for the fourth time in school history, having reached the Sectional rounds all four times. Their first trip to the DIII Championships was in 2003-04, falling to UW-Stevens Point in a sectional semifinal game that was played in Tacoma.
Puget Sound fell to UW-Stevens Point again in the 2004-05 sectionals, this time in Wisconsin. In 2005-06, the Loggers advanced to the sectional final before falling to Illinois Wesleyan in a game played at Lawrence University. While Puget Sound is still looking for its first trip to the NCAA DIII Final Four, the Loggers do have a men’s basketball title banner hanging in Memorial Fieldhouse as the 1975-76 team defeated Chattanooga, 83-74, to win the NCAA Division II Championship.
The Loggers are 25-3 this season and posted a 16-0 record in the Northwest Conference, for the conference’s first undefeated regular season in league play. Puget Sound fell to league-rival Whitworth in the NWC Tournament Championship game, however, the Loggers received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and a first-round bye.
Puget Sound defeated Whitworth 84-72 last Saturday in a Second Round game of the NCAA Tournament to advance to this weekend’s sectional. The team was led by a double-double from Jason Foster as he finished with 27 points and 12 rebounds. Austin Boyce scored 21 points and Antwan Williams chipped in 15 points. Robert Krauel nearly picked up the double-double, finishing with 11 points and nine rebounds.
Four Loggers average double-digit point totals, led by Foster’s 15.5 points per game. He also leads the team in rebounding with 7.0 rebounds per game. Krauel is averaging 14.2 points a game, while Williams has put up 12.9 points a game and Boyce 10.8 points per game.
Special thanks to Puget Sound SID, Chris Thompson information for providing the season recap.
TOURNAMENT PREVIEW
UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS
The University of St. Thomas had its first unbeaten men’s basketball regular season in 14 years (25-0). In the process UST became the first Minnesota men’s team ever to reach No. 1 in the 10-year history of the D3hoops.com national poll. They became the first team to sweep the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) regular-season and playoff titles four years in a row.
The Tommies bring a 29-0 record into the sectional tournament at Wheaton and are looking to join a select group of Division III teams to start a season 30-0. It’s St. Thomas’ fourth trip to the round of 16 but first since the 1994-95 UST team advanced all the way to the Final Four. The Toms’ all-time NCAA playoff record is 11-10, including an 11-5 home record. The Tommies also made eight postseason trips to Kansas City for NAIA national tournaments from 1949-74 (5-8 record).
The 2008-09 Tommies became the second conference team to go 20-0 in regular-season play since the league expanded its schedule in the 1983-84 season. The 1994-95 Tommies also did it in a 27-1 overall finish. UST won this year’s championship by a six-game margin over second-place Bethel and set a conference record for any sport for largest margin of victory.
The Tommies played two different games last week in the NCAA first and second rounds. They scored 96 points in a fast-paced win over Aurora (Ill.), then outlasted UW-Stevens Point 53-50. St. Thomas is allowing 59 points per game and has held eight of their last 15 opponents to 51 or less points.
The Tommies have a pair of two-sport standouts contributing. Three-year starter Lonnie Robinson was an All-American pitcher and has played in eight NCAA playoffs in baseball and basketball in his career. He’s helped St. Thomas win 15 of a possible 16 conference regular-season and playoff championships in those sports. Reserve Brady Ervin, a former Iowa State football walk-on, was an All-West Region defensive back with a conference-best six interceptions last fall.
Special thanks to St. Thomas SID, Gene McGivern for providing the season recap.
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY BEARS
The No. 2 ranked and defending national champion Washington University in St. Louis men’s basketball team advanced to Sectional Play for the third-consecutive season and seventh-overall with two victories last weekend at the Elmhurst Regional.
The Bears rallied from a four-point deficit with less than three minutes to play for a 67-65 win over No. 20 Lawrence on Friday in the first round, then rode the backs of senior Sean Wallis and junior Aaron Thompson for a 73-70 victory over No. 8 Wisconsin-Whitewater on Saturday in the second round. Thompson averaged 23.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game in WU’s two wins.
Washington University’s 25-2 overall mark ties the school record for victories in a season, as the Bears also won 25 games in 2006-07 and 2007-08. WU captured its ninth University Athletic Association (UAA) championship in school history and is making its 14th appearance in the NCAA Tournament as a Division III school and 17th overall.
Washington U. had five student-athletes earn all-UAA honors, including a school-record three on the first team. Thompson (18.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.8 apg) highlighted the Bears’ honorees earning UAA Player of the Year honors, becoming the seventh player in school history to achieve the feat. Joining Thompson on the first team was senior forward Tyler Nading (13.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg) and Wallis (10.4 ppg, 8.1 apg). In addition, junior forward Cameron Smith (5.9 ppg, 4.5 rpg) was named to the second-team, while junior center Zach Kelly (7.6 ppg, 4.5 rpg) picked up honorable-mention all-UAA accolades.
Head coach Mark Edwards and assistant coaches Tim Whittle and Caleb Lawson were honored as the UAA Coaching Staff of the Year. Edwards, who picked up his 500th career victory on Feb. 28, has guided Washington U. to back-to-back Final Four appearances and a 502-235 (.681) overall mark in 28 seasons on the Danforth Campus.
Special thanks to Washington University SID, Chris Mitchell for providing the season recap.
WHEATON COLLEGE THUNDER
Wheaton enters the Sectional with a 26-3 record this season. The Thunder won the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) Championship with an 11-3 record during the league’s regular season and the team secured the league’s automatic bid by winning the CCIW Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Wheaton opened the tournament with an 85-58 win against Fontbonne last Friday in the First Round. On Saturday Wheaton defeated UW-Platteville 74-69 in overtime. Kent Raymond led the Thunder with 24 points. Ben Panner contributed 17 points, with five assists. Andy Wiele scored 11 points, with nine rebounds and Andrew Jahns added 10 points off the Wheaton bench.
All-American Kent Raymond leads the Thunder with 24.0 points per game. Raymond, one of only three players in league history to earn the CCIW “Most Outstanding Player” award three times, is second all-time at Wheaton and fourth in CCIW history with 2,286 career points.
Senior center Andy Wiele has scored 14.1 points per game this season and shot a team-best 60.6% (140-231) field goal percentage. Wiele, a two-time Second Team All-CCIW selection, has a team-high average of 8.6 rebounds per game this year. Wiele is sixth in Wheaton history with 799 career rebounds. Guard Ben Panner is a Second Team All-Conference selection this year with an average of 12.7 points per game. Panner has shot 47.9% (136-284) from the field this year. In Saturday’s win against UW-Platteville, Panner became the 39th player in Wheaton history to record 1,000 career points.
Junior forward Jake Carwell has been a versatile contributor. Carwell has averaged 4.8 rebounds, 6.0 points and 3.2 assists per game. Freshmen Tim McCrary and Jeremy Pflederer have made valuable contributions in their debut seasons at Wheaton. McCrary, a forward, has averaged 9.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game and he leads the team with 1.4 blocked shots per game. Pflederer, a guard, has averaged 5.4 points per game this year.
