HENDERSON — Despite trailing by 16 points, the No. 1 seed Freed-Hardeman University Lions stormed back to defeat the ninth-seeded Spring Arbor (Mich.) University Cougars 71-69 and earn their third consecutive trip to the round of 16 of the NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship Presented by Ballogy.

The Freed-Hardeman (28-5) offense was kicked off by Ryley McClaran who began the the game with back-to-back 3-pointers. Phil Horton's triple at 15:40 gave the Lions a 12-7 lead. Fortunes then reversed as the Cougars connected on nine of their next 11 shots while the Lions came up empty on six straight possessions. The 13-0 run by SAU stunned the Lions who trailed by eight before Makai Vassell's jumper broke a cold streak and light up FHU's side of the scoreboard again to make the score 20-14 in favor of SAU. After the Cougars held their largest lead of 16 at 5:17, Jordan Stephens' 3-pointer jump-started FHU's scoring with the graduate transfer scoring 10 of the Lions' last 14 points to end the first half trailing 41-33.

The second half was a back-and-forth battle with Peyton Law and Geraldo Lane joining forces to narrow Spring Arbor's (20-11) lead to one possession. Stephens connected for another 3-pointer at 17:45 to complete the comeback and tie the game 42-42. The Cougars kept the Lions from taking a lead until Stephens was joined by Sam Powell, whose 3-pointer at 12:42 gave FHU a 52-51 lead. The Cougars would score eight unanswered points to jump back on top. A 3-pointer at 4:10 gave SAU a 69-64 lead. Law sank a 3-pointer to set up McClaran to lay in the tying score. Late free throws from Law and McClaran gave FHU a two-point lead with 12 seconds to go. SAU had the ball out of a timeout with seven seconds remaining, but the Lion defense forced a missed shot and a defensive rebound from Stephens secured the second-round victory.

As even as it gets, both FHU and SAU were both 26-52 from the floor to shoot 50% with both teams tallying 10 3-pointers. The FHU defense forced 17 turnovers to convert those to 19 points. 

Jordan Stephens tied his season-high of 20 points with three 3-pointers. Ryley McClaran and Makai Vassell dropped in 13 points while Peyton Law connected for 10 points. McClaran led the Lions with five rebounds while Stephens had a team-high three steals.

This will be the ninth year that the Lions have played in Municipal Auditorium: six times when the entire tournament field of 48 was held in Kansas City. The last three came by virtue of advancing to the round of 16 when the NAIA expanded the tournament field from to 64 in 2018.
 

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The Lions will pack up and travel to Kansas City, Missouri with the 15 other remaining teams. The Lions will face former Mid-South Conference member at No. 4 seed Life (Ga.) University on March 21 at 1:00 p.m.  Read Full Article