KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The No. 1 seed Freed-Hardeman Lions connected for 12 3-pointers in the first half to take a big lead that helped them to an 85-71 victory over the Life (Ga.) University Running Eagles in the round of 16 of the 2025 NAIA Men's Basketball Championship Presented by Ballogy.
The Lions (29-5) made the first nine shots they attempted including 3-pointers from
Jayson Nixon,
Ryley McClaran, and
Sam Powell. Freed-Hardeman exploded out of the gates with Powell's triple at 15:11 giving the Lions a 23-5 lead.
Peyton Law and
Makai Vassell connected for back-to-back long balls before Life went an a six-point run.
Jordan Stephens tallied a 3-pointer to open an 11-0 run by the Lions to give them their largest lead at 29 points. After the Running Eagles added 12 points in the last three minutes the Lions took a 54-32 lead into the halftime break.
The second half featured a furious comeback with the Running Eagles (27-7) scoring 10 points before the Lions were able to hit a shot from the floor with
Phil Horton's dunk at 16:16. A 3-pointer and back-to-back layups narrowed the gap to just seven points with 10:47 left in the round of 16 game. Stephens scored five straight points to help make the FHU lead double digits before Horton and Law joined forces to score six unanswered points. McClaran's 3-pointer at 2:12 helped push the Lions to the final buzzer in the 85-71 victory.
The Lions shot 58% from the floor including a 46% mark from long range. The Running Eagles shot 45% from the field including 24 points off of turnovers. FHU's ball movement saw the Lions dish out 21 assists in the victory.
Peyton Law led FHU's offense by going 10-13 from the floor to score 23 points.
Geraldo Lane scored 13 points while
Makai Vassell added 10 points. Vassell led FHU with six rebounds while Lane gave out a team-high five assists.
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Up Next
The Lions will face No. 11 seed Southern Oregon on March 22 at 5:00 p.m. in the quarterfinal.
