CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - The Loras Duhawks, ranked 20th in the country, advance to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament for the first time in program history. The Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves national title defense fell short, dropping a tough contest to No.13 St. Thomas (Minn.), 70-58.
NWU ends its season 27-2 overall. Loras (23-6) moves on to face 4th-ranked UW-Oskhosh (25-3), which defeated Northwestern-St. Paul, 108-86. The Titans of Oshkosh defeated Lake Forest 86-62 in the opening round. The Duhawks will square off with UW-Oshkosh next weekend, with the site and game time to be announced. The other two teams joining Loras and the Titans at a site to be determined are No.13 St. Thomas and Guilford. Winners of the two Friday, March 8 Sweet 16 games will move on to play each other Saturday, March 9 in the Elite 8.
Loras - 84, North Central - 82
After picking up a 75-64 opening round win over Albion, Head Coach
Chris Martin's squad used steady shooting and clutch free throws down the stretch to knock out CCIW Champion,15th-ranked North Central. The Duhawks and Cardinals battled back and fourth throughout the first half, changing leads five times before North Central earned the advantage with 4:56 left in the half. Loras headed into halftime down 38-34 but
Demond George opened up the second half with a three pointer to cut the Cardinal's lead to one.
With 14:24 to go in the game, Loras'
Jake Toman put in a layup, giving Loras the lead 48-47, a lead they held the remainder of the game. As the clocked wound down, Loras clutched a one possession game, 80-77 with 1:31 to go. Now with 34 seconds on the clock and no change score,
Cole Navigato drained two free throws to put the Duhawks up five, but North Central went down the floor and tipped in a missed three-pointer to put it back at one possession. The clock now at 13 seconds remaining, Demond sunk two free throws, once again pushing Loras' lead to five. The Cardinals gave it all they had, hitting a three-pointer with one second left on the clock, but Loras hung on 84-82, advancing to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.
Loras was led in scoring by first-team All-Conference performers Ryan DiCanio (27) and Josh Ruggles (18). DiCanio went 9-for-17 from the floor, 1-for-3 from three-point and a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe. Cole Navigato (15) and George Demond (11) round out the double-digit scorers for Loras. DiCanio was also the top rebounder with eight, followed by Navigato (6) and George (5).
Nebraska Wesleyan - 58, St. Thomas - 70
After a convincing 101-75 first-round win over Eureka, NWU ran out of steam in the second half of tonight's match-up with St. Thomas. The Prairie Wolves trailed the Tommies the majority of the first half but used an 8-0 run with 5:54 left to head into halftime up by one, 38-37. In the second half, NWU expanded their lead to seven early on but relinquished it with 10:57 to go and never caught stride again. St. Thomas' largest lead of the game, 15, game with 2:47 to go and the Tommies eventually owned a 12 point margin at the final buzzer, 70-58.
A cold second half of shooting for NWU proved to be the difference in the contests between top-15 ranked teams. After shooting 43% (12-28) from the field and 46% (6-13) from three-point in the first half, NWU went 7-28 (25%) from the field and 0-13 (0%) from three-point in the second half.
Nate Schimonitz was the top scorer for NWU with 15.
Cooper Cook was the top rebounder with 8 and the second leading scorer with 14.
Ryan Garver and
Clay Reimers each finished with 10 points.
