KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After nine times of entering the NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship Presented by Ballogy, the top-seeded Freed-Hardeman University Lions made history by reaching the Fab Four with a dominant 85-74 victory over the Central Baptist (Ark.) College Mustangs.
After trailing by as many as seven points in the first five minutes, the Lions (30-4) passed the ball to
Sam Powell who drained back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Lions an 11-10 lead by scoring eight points in under one minute. The 14th seed Mustangs jumped back on top after a triple and a layup, but
Geraldo Lane's jumper in the paint was chased by back-to-back 3-pointers from
Devin Tomlinson to give the Lions a lead they would never relinquish. CBC cut the lead down to one possession by scoring five points from the free-throw line to make the score 30-24.
Hunter Scurlock then scored his first points of the contest with a layup, followed by two more layups before Powell's fourth triple of the day gave the Lions a 39-26 lead with 3:00 remaining in the half.
Ryley McClaran would knock down a 3-pointer of his own in the final minute to send the Lions to the locker room leading 46-30.
The big first half was enough for the Lions to keep the Mustangs (28-7) at arm's length with CBC out-scoring FHU 44-39 in the second half.
Peyton Law opened the second act with a flourish by slamming home a dunk before hitting a pair of free throws to give the Lions a 20-point lead.
Chase Fiddler's 3-pointer at 10:02 was followed by six straight points from
Phil Horton to give the Lions their biggest lead of the quarterfinal at 72-46. In the final eight minutes of the game, the Lions were held to just five shots - making one; however, FHU would hit eight free throws down the stretch to punch their ticket to the national semifinal with the 85-74 victory.
Despite FHU surrendering one more turnover than CBC, the Lions made the Mustangs pay for those turnovers by scoring 25 points off of turnovers to the Mustangs' 15. The great ball movement of the Lions was on full display with FHU giving out 14 assists to CBC's six.
Quan Lax and
Sam Powell shared the team-high with 12 points each, Lax going 7-8 from the line while Powell hit all 12 of his points from beyond the arc.
Chase Fiddler and
Geraldo Lane each tallied 11 points while
Phil Horton tacked on 10. FHU had nine different players record multiple rebounds in the win with
Devin Tomlinson's six leading the charge.
Hunter Scurlock gave out a team-high four assists while Lane and Lax each had three steals.
Up Next
Having won the Cramer bracket of the NAIA Men's Basketball Championship, the Lions will face the Lancers of Grace (Ind.) College, the victors of the Naismith bracket. FHU remembers the Lancers all too well with the only other time the two have met being in Kansas City's round of 16 last season with Grace taking the win 86-67.
With a trip to the championship game on the line, the Lions and the Lancers will meet on Monday, March 25 at 5:00 p.m.
