WIAC ousted as 16 teams move on

Mar 05, 2022
Luke Morrison had a career-high to lead Calvin into the third round.
Photo by Doug Sasse, d3photography.com
 

The three WIAC teams were all eliminated from the tournament in a span of about 20 minutes on Saturday night, while the three CCIW teams all advanced.

Host sites for the sectional round (Sweet 16 and Elite 8) are Case Western Reserve, Illinois Wesleyan, Marietta and Randolph-Macon.

Calvin made the Sweet 16 for the first time in eight years and contributed to the ousting of the WIAC, defeating UW-Platteville 76-64. Senior Luke Morrison poured in a career-high 37 points including 18 in the first half when the Knights jumped out to a 38-27 halftime lead. UW-Platteville (22-6) made an early second half run at the Knights cutting the deficit down to five points at 41-36, forcing Calvin to call timeout with 15:11 remaining. Out of the timeout, sophomore Uchenna Egekeze came up with a drive to the basket that gave the Knights a seven-point advantage. Morrison and senior Thad Shymanski then drilled triples to put the Knights back up double-digits. Calvin (22-8) widened its lead to as many as 18 points at 59-41 with Morrison delivering 13 straight points for the Knights during a key second half stretch.

Elmhurst rallied from a 17-point deficit to defeat Pomona-Pitzer and move on. The Bluejays came out quickly in the second half, starting on a 7-0 run to bring the deficit, which had been 14 at the half, down to seven. Pomona-Pitzer pushed its lead back up to 10 with 17 minutes left, but the Bluejays responded with an 18-2 run over the next 4:30 to open up a 5-0 lead. A pair of 3-pointers from Jake Rhode and two buckets from Dominic Genco helped fuel the Bluejays' run. Elmhurst would not trail for the rest of the contest, but the Sagehens kept the contest close. Pomona-Pitzer sliced Elmhurst's lead down to just one with two minutes remaining after a Joe Cookson 3-pointer. Rhode found Lavon Thomas open for a layup with 90 seconds left to put the Bluejays' up 68-65. After a Sagehins miss, Genco hit a driving layup just before the shot clock expired to five Elmhurst a five-point cushion with 30 seconds left. Thomas hit a pair of free throws with 14 seconds left after a Sagehens missed shot to help seal the win for the Bluejays.

A go-ahead layup from junior forward Cole Frilling with 10.9 seconds left in regulation propelled the Case Western Reserve men's basketball team into the Sweet 16, as the Spartans upset defending champion and third-ranked UW-Oshkosh 77-74. The Spartans, in the tournament for the first time, will host the Sweet 16 and face Mary Hardin-Baylor. The Spartans, down by 16 points early in the second half, faced a 72-67 deficit with 42.9 seconds remaining in the contest. Senior forward Ryan Newton, who finished with a team-high 21 points and nine rebounds, drained a 3-pointer with 32.2 seconds left to bring CWRU within two. After two free throws from UW-Oshkosh, graduate student guard Mitch Prendergast drew a foul on a three-point attempt with 23.8 seconds until the end of regulation and made all three free throws to cut the deficit to one, 74-73. The Spartans, playing press defense, regained possession with a turnover and gave themselves a chance to take the lead. Following a missed layup from Newton, Frilling came crashing into the paint, collected the offensive rebound, and made the go-ahead basket. Up 75-74 and needing one final stop, Prendergast forced a steal with less than two seconds remaining. He converted twice from the charity stripe with 1.1 seconds left on the clock to seal the Spartan victory. Prendergast finished with 15 points, including the five clutch free throws in the game's final minute. Sophomore forward Hunter Drenth had a career day, finishing with a career-high 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field.

For the second time under the tutelage of Chris Bartley and the first time since 2005, WPI is headed to the Sweet 16 after a 72-52 defeat of Penn State Harrisburg in front of a spirited home crowd at Harrington Auditorium. The Engineers (26-2) held the Lions (24-4) to just 12 first-half points, while junior John Lowther poured on another 23 points and six rebounds en route to the victory.

Will Rubin scored 18 points with five rebounds, four assists and two steals and RPI held No. 8 Wesleyan to 25 points below its season average in defeating the Cardinals 59-58. The Engineers, who rank first in Division III in scoring defense (57.5 points per game) improve to 23-5 and advance to the Sweet 16 against No. 13 WPI on Friday. The Cardinals end the season with a 25-4 record. In a game that came down to the final possession, Wesleyan's Preston Maccoux saw his fall away jumper at the final buzzer hit the front rim and carom away, giving RPI its second trip to the Sweet 16 in school history. The 1995-96 squad also advanced that far.

After being held scoreless in the first half, Lukas Isaly went on to have a memorable night, scoring 33 points in the second half and overtime to help Marietta get past Rochester 88-83 and advance to the Sweet 16. Isaly picked up his second foul with 6:12 left to play in the first half and sat until halftime, watching Rochester finish on an 11-5 spurt to take a one-point lead at the half. Isaly opened the second half with 3-point basket and his scoring barrage was about to be unleashed. Down 43-40, he responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to give Marietta a 46-43 lead. "Going into the half, all the guys said the second half is going to be your half," said Isaly, a first team All-Ohio Athletic Conference selection. "I always tell myself once I see one go in that I'll start building some confidence."

Host institution Nazareth flipped a nine-point halftime deficit to a 12-point lead with eight minutes remaining in the game, but Mass-Dartmouth staged another late-game comeback to take a 78-68 victory and send the home crowd back unhappy. The Corsairs (26-4) have now won the second-most games in program history and advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2008-09 and sixth time ever. Four members of the team for UMass Dartmouth scored in double figures. Graduate student Jake Ashworth matched the game high with 22 points, sinking five 3-pointers in the process and was a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line.

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