Saturday: Dozens leap into tournament

More news about: Johns Hopkins | UW-Oshkosh | Wooster | York (Pa.)
Feb 29, 2020
Wooster sprinted past Wittenberg and into the NCAA Tournament, leaving nothing to chance.
 Photo for Wooster athletics by John Coffman
  

Johns Hopkins ended Swarthmore's unbeaten streak, Wooster put Wittenberg on the NCAA Tournament's waiting list, York advanced in a hard-fought CAC title game, and many other tourney bids were clinched on Saturday.

Nobody's perfect, at least not in Division III men's basketball.

The last undefeated team fell when Connor Delaney drained a buzzer-beating jumpshot that lifted No. 8 Johns Hopkins over No. 1 Swarthmore, 73-71. Swarthmore had two chances to take the lead in the final minute but two shots by George Visconti were off the mark. The Blue Jays gave the ball to Delaney who waived off his head coach's suggestion of a time out to set up the final shot. Instead Delaney ran down the clock to 10 seconds, drove to the right of the foul line and hit the game-winning shot.

Delaney, who missed much of last season due to injury, finished with a career-high 32 points. Nate Shafer posted a double-double for Swarthmore with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Neither team led by more than five points at any point in the game.

Wittenberg has lost just two games all season, but both of them have come at the hands of its archrival, as Wooster ensured it would be able to rest easy this weekend, cruising past the Tigers 87-63 to win the North Coast Athletic Conference automatic bid. The win ensures that legendary coach Steve Moore will end his long coaching career in the NCAA Tournament. Danyon Hempy scored a game-high 29 points, including the 2,000th point of his career early in the second half, to lead the Scots (21-7), while Trenton Tipton added 22. Wooster won at Wittenberg on Jan. 18, then proceeded to lost three of its next four, and five of its next 10 to end up the third seed in the conference tournament. It was the 867th career win for Moore.

Wooster is 9-5 all-time in NCAC tournament title games against Wittenberg, including 5-1 at Witt's Pam Evans Smith Arena. Wooster now leads the all-time series 62-60.

Jack Flynn and Adam Fravert started on last year's national title team for UW-Oshkosh and know what it's like to advance deep into the NCAA Tournament. And the pair combined for 35 points on Saturday night. But it was the contributions of Levi Borchert (19 points) and Eddie Muench (15) that helped the holdovers win their way back to the postseason as the Titans defeated UW-Eau Claire 78-72. Fravert was just 4-for-13 from the floor, but came down with a game-high 14 rebounds, as the Titans dominated the Blugolds on the boards by a 48-22 margin.

Punches were thrown in a Capital Athletic Conference final between two teams that split two hard-fought games already this season, and the automatic bid went to York (Pa.), which defeated Christopher Newport on the road, 79-77. Darin Gordon scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half and simultaneously kept Jason Aigner in check in the second half, holding him to two points after 18 in the first, as the Spartans (22-5) held on for the win. York led by nine, 71-62, with 5:22 left in the game before Luther Gibbs found Nick Parks for a bucket, then dialed up his own number from 3-point range. Parks fed Cutch Ellis for a layup which tied the game and he added one of two free throws to give the Captains a 72-71 lead with 1:50 left.

Gordon rebounded the miss and answered with a 3-pointer. Ellis responded with a layup to knot the game at 74. Gordon hit another 3 and Ellis answered with a traditional three-point play to make it 77-all with 45 seconds left. On the next trip down the floor, David Giuliani finished a wild sequence with a putback basket, after his second and the Spartans' third offensive rebound of the possession to give York the lead with 17.7 seconds remaining. The teams traded misses in the closing seconds, with Giuliani blocking a 3-point attempt at the top of the circle at the buzzer. Jared Ellis finished with a game-high 28 for York. York's Logan Collins and Ian Anderson of CNU were ejected with 11:44 left in the game after a battle in the paint led to a short scuffle.

No. 3 St. John's led wire to wire in defeating No. 2 St. Thomas and winning the automatic bid out of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Tommies (24-3), who shot 11-for-19 from beyond the arc in a win at SJU on Feb. 15, managed just 4-for-21 shooting from deep as St. John's ran away with an 82-63 win. Jubie Alade led the Johnnies (25-2) with 28 points.

Sean Ryan blocks Anders Nelson's shot in the first half of the MIAC final. It was one of just four misses from Nelson en route to 16 points.
Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com
 

Wesley won a physical contest and the AEC championship 91-88 over Gwynedd Mercy. Senior guard Brian Cameron led the way with 30 points. Wesley got two wins and likely sewed up the sole Pool B bid to the NCAA Tournament without head coach Dean Burrows who has been hospitalized this week. In the interim, Wesley women's coach Jim Wearden has been manning the Wolverines' bench.

Ripon stormed the floor in front of a packed house at St. Norbert after a second half in which the Redhawks (19-7) stormed back from a halftime deficit and pulled away to an 84-71 victory. Trent Jones, the conference player of the year, scored 24 points and added six assists, while Owen Theune added 21 points and 10 boards. Ripon returns to the NCAA Tournament after a two-year absence, while St. Norbert waits on the bubble.

DeAnte Bruton had another big afternoon, as he had 38 points and 14 rebounds to lead Nichols to a 76-75 win at Endicott in the Commonwealth Coast Conference final. Bruton scored 26 of his 38 in the second half. It's the fourth CCC title in a row for Nichols, which has won nine games in a row after an 11-8 start to the season. 

Brockport won its 17th consecutive game and won the SUNYAC title for the first time since 2014, defeating Potsdam State 102-75. The Golden Eagles shot 9-for-17 from beyond the arc and 31-for-39 from the line, with Tyler Collins scoring a game-high 23 points. "This year we've been on an unbelievable run and to finally get over that hump and to win the championship, it's an unreal feeling," Collins said after the game.

Top-seeded Western Connecticut State used a 9-2 run midway through the second half to go ahead for good as the Colonials recorded an 88-75 victory over second-seeded Mass-Dartmouth to win the Little East automatic berth. It's the sixth conference title for Western Connecticut (20-7), but its first since 2005. Fenton Bradley, Jr. shot 6-for-7 from the floor en route to 17 points and added 10 rebounds in the win. The Corsairs (16-11) shot just 3-for-22 from 3-point range.

Westfield State holds a MASCAC men's basketball trophy for the first time in five years.
 Westfield State athletics photo
  

Tyler Dion scored 19 points, including a four-point play that brought Worcester State within one point with under a minute left. And even though Westfield State missed the front end of a one-and-one that could have sealed the game with 13 seconds remaining, the Owls managed to pick up a turnover and held on to defeat Worcester State 81-77 and win the MASCAC tournament title and automatic bid. The Owls, who improved to 20-7, were led by Jauch Green's 30 points and 12 rebounds. It's Westfield's first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2015.

St. John Fisher overcame a 20-point deficit en route to a 72-64 win over top-seeded Nazareth to win the Empire 8 title. The Golden Flyers roared out to a 35-15 lead, but the Cardinals found some offense, ran off a 15-2 run of their own, eventually taking the lead at with a 9-0 run to start the second half. Trailing by four and with time winding down, the Cardinals had one more run as Dylan Harrington and Matt Asenjo connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to spark a 13-1 run to close out the game.

Joseph Werner and Danny Santana scored 19 points apiece and SUNY-Canton secured its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in Division III men's basketball, getting past Maine-Farmington 72-71. The win ended an historic season for the Beavers, who won a school-record 22 games. The Roos (16-11) poured in a dozen 3-pointers in the victory.

The Webster starting five combined for 110 points, 103 of them coming from four players as the Gorloks systematically advanced into the NCAA Tournament, defeating Greenville 121-112 in the SLIAC final. Wynne Brown led the way with a game-high 34 on 13-for-20 shooting. Webster (19-8) only turned the ball over 14 times against the fast pace and pressure of the Panthers, whose season ends at 14-13.