Bearcats punch ticket, CCIW top seeds fall

Feb 25, 2022
Baruch put itself back in the postseason with a big second half and overtime.
 Baruch athletics photo by John Neves
 

The top two seeds fell in the CCIW tournament, Baruch won the CUNYAC and much more happened on Friday night in Division III men's basketball. Two automatic bids are in the books, with a mere 42 to go.

Baruch trailed by as many as 12 but survived a buzzer beater attempt by Lehman in regulation and went on to ground the Lightning 75-69 in overtime, winning the City University of New York Athletic Conference tournament and automatic bid. The Bearcats held Baruch to just 1-for-11 shooting from beyond the arc in the second half and 0-for-5 in the overtime. Gian Batista recorded another triple-double with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for Lehman (21-4) but also added seven turnovers. Meanwhile, Emil Purisic scored a game-high 23 points, shooting 9-for-10, and added 14 rebounds for Baruch (20-7) in the win.

North Central (Ill.) upset No. 5-ranked Illinois Wesleyan, the top seed in the CCIW tournament, and Elmhurst got past second-seeded Wheaton, meaning the 3 and 4 seeds will play for the conference's automatic bid on Saturday night. The league, which was already destined to get three bids to the tournament, could steal a fourth if North Central (17-9) beats the Bluejays. Matt Helwig had a huge night for the Cardinals, putting up 30 points on 11-for-16 shooting, and recording 12 rebounds, all of them on the defensive end.

Macalester erased a 13-point deficit in the second half to beat second-seeded Augsburg 76-74 in the semifinals of the MIAC tournament. The sixth-seeded Scots, who are now 15-12 on the season, have knocked off the tournament's 3 and 2 seed and head off to play the conference's No. 1 seed, St. John's, on Sunday. Macalester started the season 4-9 before reeling off a stretch of 11 wins in 14 games and will play for the conference automatic bid for the first time since 2004. Photos from this game.

Wooster will make its 23rd appearance in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament final in the past 25 seasons, but this one will see the Scots as a decided underdog as they take on the host, top-seeded Wabash. Wooster's 13-2 second-half run all but put the game out of reach for DePauw (11-14), the tournament's six-seed. Elijah Meredith's bucket capped the stretch, and put Wooster up by a game-high 20 points at 60-40 with 9:34 to go. Meanwhile, Wabash and Denison traded punches in the first five minutes of their semifinal, but the Little Giants sandwiched a 10-0 scoring run around the media timeout and never looked back en route to a 98-74 win in front of a frenzied crowd at Chadwick Court. The win is the 19th in a row for the Little Giants. Jack Davidson had another monster game – hitting six of seven 3-pointers – and finished with a game-high 32 points.

George Visconti had a big night for Swarthmore and Conner Delaney did for Johns Hopkins to ensure that their teams will meet in the Centennial Conference final for the fourth consecutive season. Visconti scored a game-high 24 points, shooting 10-for-12 from the field and 4-for-5 from 3-point range in an 80-64 win for the Garnet against Gettysburg, while Delaney had 23 points of his own, along with a game-high five assists as top-seeded Johns Hopkins got past Ursinus 81-75. The Bears shot just 4-for-21 from 3-point range.

Stephen Gabel and Jonathan Park each posted double-doubles for second-seeded Nazareth to lead the Golden Flyers to an 80-71 triumph over St. John Fisher in the Empire 8 semifinals. After splitting a pair of regular-season games with the Fisher, the Golden Flyers secured the rubber match to improve to 22-4 overall. Nazareth will play top-seeded Utica in Saturday's championship game at 3 p.m. Utica defeated Alfred in the other semifinal game, 75-70. Nazareth and Utica split two regular-season games.

Hood opened the game with an 18-6 run but needed to shoot 58 percent in the second half to pull way from Widener 90-77 in the MAC Commonwealth semifinals. The win sends the Blazers to the conference final Sunday afternoon against Eastern, which defeated Messiah 84-73. It is Hood's first trip to the MAC Commonwealth championship game since joining the conference in 2012-13. The Blazers last played for a conference championship in 2006-07 as members of the Capital Athletic Conference.