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| Devin Green and his Oswego State Laker teammates took down the No. 1 team in the Sweet 16. Photo by Dan Hunter, d3photography.com |
Oswego State ended Randolph-Macon's title defense and home winning streak, while Nichols advanced to the Elite Eight, UW-Whitewater got two FTs with 0.3 left, Wheaton knocked out St. Joe's, Swarthmore crushed Keene, and UW-Oshkosh and Mount Union advanced in Friday night's Sweet 16 action.
The Lakers advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time, going to one of the toughest places to play in Division III basketball in recent years and taking down Randolph-Macon, the top-ranked team in the country by a 74-63 score. Jeremiah Sparks scored 24 points and Ahkee Anderson added 22 as the pair combined to shoot 17-for-26 in the victory. Josh Talbert shot 10-for-15 from the floor for 21 points for Randolph-Macon, but the rest of the team combined to go 17-for-55, and 5-for-26 from 3-point range.
Oswego will play UW-Whitewater for a trip to the Final Four, and it will be the only site where the host was knocked out, as Swarthmore, Christopher Newport and Mount Union advanced.
Johns Hopkins hit a 3-pointer from the win with 7:41 to play in regulation to take the lead against UW-Whitewater for the first time since the opening minute, and the Blue Jays eventually took a five-point lead with just over a minute left. Whitewater put JHU on the foul line with 41 seconds left where the Blue Jays made just one of two, but got the offensive rebound. Hopkins was fouled again and missed both. Miles Barnstable answered with a step-back 3-pointer to cut the lead to three. Again JHU made just one out of two and Carter Capstran answered with a putback of a missed Barnstable 3 to make it 73-71 with 11 seconds left. Johns Hopkins once more went to the foul line and again came away with just one point and Trevon Chislom found Barnstable with an outlet pass for the easy layup, cutting the lead to 74-73 with eight seconds to play. Another 1-for-2 from the charity stripe left JHU up 75-73 with under three seconds to go and needing to drive the length of the floor.
JHU pressured the near guards forcing the inbounder to heave the ball near the sideline at midcourt. Capstran hauled in the catch inbounds and tossing it toward the three-point line before falling out of play. Delvin Barnstable came back for the ball and his hustle paid off as JHU was called for a foul on the catch with just 0.3 seconds left. Barnstable's first free throw bounced off the rim, hit the backboard and dropped through. He drained the next one to send the game into overtime. The Barnstables combined for 26 points in the second half for UWW.
In overtime, JHU led with 12 seconds to play but Jameer Barker hit a pair of foul shots with six seconds remaining and JHU could not get a good look at the backet as UWW advanced to the Elite Eight with an 83-82 win.
St. Joseph (Conn.) struggled all night from 3-point range and Wheaton (Ill.) went on a 19-4 run in the second half as the Thunder returned to the Elite Eight with a 74-67 win. St. Joseph's deepest run in the NCAA Tournament ends in the round of 16. Tyson Cruickshank found himself in foul trouble early after his Wheaton team sprinted out to a 7-0 lead. USJ made hay while he was on the bench, turning that 7-0 deficit into a 22-15 lead, but Cruickshank helped stem the tide and the Blue Jays' lead was cut to 29-27 at the half. St. Joe's led 45-40 with 11:52 to play in the game before Wheaton (25-4) sprinted out and turned that into a 59-49 lead and held on the rest of the way. Andrew Williams scored a game-high 23 points and added eight rebounds while Cruickshank had nine points and passed out 10 assists in the win. Delshawn Jackson Jr. led USJ (29-2) with 22 points.
Christopher Newport held Mary Hardin-Baylor's Josiah Johnson to just four field goal attempts and just one point as the Captains defeated UMHB 72-60. CNU will play host to Wheaton in Saturday evening's Elite Eight game. Ty Prince scored 33 points, 27 of them in the second half, to keep the Crusaders (23-5) in the game, but CNU had four scorers in double figures, outrebounded the Crusaders 48-35 and turned 16 UMHB turnovers into 23 points. Jahn Hines scored 17 and Ty Henderson added 15 as Christopher Newport (26-3) advanced to the Elite Eight for the second year in a row and the fifth time in program history.
UW-Oshkosh caught fire from long-range and simply could not be stopped, as the Titans used relentless ball movement to pour in 16 3-pointers and ran away from Rowan in the final 10 minutes of a 91-72 win at Mount Union. Rowan had the lead down to one point at 59-58 before the Titans (24-6) went on an 11-0 run. UW-Oshkosh went on to outscore the Profs 32-14 the rest of the way. UWO shot 16-for-29 from 3-point range (55%) and 34-for-65 from the floor in the win. Will Mahoney scored a game-high 22 points off the bench for UW-Oshkosh, while Cole Booth added 14 in 26 minutes off the bench as well. Ja'Zere Noel led Rowan (24-6) with 20. Oshkosh will play Mount Union, which beat North Park 102-85. The Purple Raiders trailed by 11 late in the first half, but went on a huge run across the halftime to put the game away. Jeffery Mansfield led all scorers with 24 points, while Christian Parker added 21, 15 of them in a first half in which Mount Union (28-2) went 8-for-12 from 3-point range. Marquise Jackson scored 31 fo lead North Park, as one of five scorers in double figures.
Jakigh Dottin came off the bench to score a game-high 34 points as Nichols advanced to the Elite Eight, defeating Stockton 86-68 at Swarthmore. The Ospreys got out to an early lead but then went cold for most of the first half, shooting just 29% from the floor and 4-for-19 from 3-point range and trailing 39-32 at the half. Stockton scored eight in a row to take a lead early in the second half, but Dottin sparked a run. He ended up 13-for-17 from the field. Stockton put a few runs together, but Nichols was able to keep the lead double digits and pushed the game out of reach. DJ Campbell scored 25 for Stockton, which fell to 24-6. Nichols will face host Swarthmore. Keene State came out and was the more physical opponent against Swarthmore for a grand total of 90 seconds before the Garnet pushed back, and did so relentlessly. Swat went away from its usual 3-point attack and instead pushed the pace, tiring out a Keene State squad that already doesn't go very deep and had two starters battling illness: Octavio Brito and Jeff Hunter. Centennial Player of the Year Vinnie DeAngelo had 17 in the first half and finished with 23, but it was a team effort for the Garnet, looking very much like the squad that went all the way to the championship game in 2019 and was ranked No. 1 when COVID shut everything down. Brito finished with 14 points, while Hunter went for 12 points and six rebounds.