ST. LOUIS, MO. -- The 2018 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) regular season and tournament champion, Nebraska Wesleyan men's basketball team (25-3) advanced to the second-round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament tonight with a 94-70 win over will Maryville College (22-7).
Six minutes and 33-seconds into the game, NWU and Maryville were knotted at 15 all. Neither team would score for the next minute and 48-seconds, when NWU's
Ryan Garver hit a three-pointer to put the Prairie Wolves up 18-15. From that point on it was all NWU. The Prairie Wolves would go on a 33-11 run to close out the half leading the Scots 48-26.
In the second half Maryville would do their best to cut into the Prairie Wolf lead, but the best they could do was cut it down to 19 at the 18:06 mark and again with 15:19 left in the game. NWU's hot shooting held strong throughout the game, finishing with 33 makes out of 59 shots from the field for a game average of 55.9%. From deep the Prairie Wolves made 41.4% of their shots, going 12-29. NWU's free throw shooting finished at 72.7% slightly below their season average of 80%.
Cooper Cook led NWU in scoring with 19 points, nine of which came from three-point range. Garver was the team's second leading scorer with 18, followed by
Jack Hiller and
Nate Schimonitz with 15 each. Garver had a huge night on the boards, bringing down 14 rebounds to record a double-double on the night. He also added eight assists. The IIAC's leading rebounder,
Deion Wells-Ross brought down seven boards tonight as the team's second leading rebounder.
Maryville had a much colder night shooting that the Prairie Wolves, as they went 37.5% from the field and 30.8% from three-point. At the charity stripe the Scots made just 10-16 for 62.5%. Maryville was led in scoring by
Dante Hoppa, who put up 18 and also recorded a team high 10 rebounds for a double-double.
The Prairie Wolves will face Aurora (20-8) tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. in St. Louis, Missouri at host institution Washington-St. Louis. The Spartans defeated No. 4 Washington-St. Louis (22-4) 82-80 in first-round action.
Tournament Schedule
Final Results Friday, March 2
5:30 p.m.
Nebraska Wesleyan - 94 vs. Maryville College - 70
BOX SCORE
7:30 p.m.
Aurora - 82 vs. No. 4 Washington-St. Louis - 80
BOX SCORE
Saturday, March 3
7:00 p.m. Nebraska Wesleyan vs. Aurora
Ticket Prices
$10 adults
$5 senior, youth, and students
Cash only
Doors will open 60 minutes prior to the game
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Nebraska Wesleyan
The Prairie Wolves received the IIAC's automatic bid as the conference tournament champion and will make their 15th overall appearance and first since 2001
NWU is averaging 96.2 points per game to rank 7th in the nation in scoring. The Prairie Wolves have six players scoring in double figures and rank third in the country in field goal percentage.
Nate Schimonitz leads the Prairie Wolves in scoring (17.1PPG) and assists (5.2APG).
Cooper Cook and
Ryan Garver are the team's second and third leading scorers, averaging 16.3PPG and 14.5PPG respectively. Deion Wells-Ross is the top Prairie Wolf rebounder, averaging 9.3RPG.
Maryville
Maryville earned an automatic bid to the championships by winning the USA South Tournament. They finished the year 22-6 overall and are making their 19
th appearance at the NCAA III National Tournament.
WashU
WashU won its 15
th University Athletic Association (UAA) championship this season to earn the league's automatic bid. The Bears are making their 21
st NCAA Division III Tournament appearance, and 24th overall postseason appearance.
Aurora
The Spartans received qualified for the NCAA Tournament after winning the Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference (NACC) tournament championship. Aurora will be making their 10th overall NCAA Tournament appearance since the 1997-1998 season and their seventh in 14 seasons.
