Men's first round brings all-day thrills

Mar 04, 2022
The Penn State-Harrisburg defense locked down St. Joseph (Conn.).
Photo by Pete Meshanic, d3photography.com
 

Penn State-Harrisburg did it again, Pomona-Pitzer survived at the buzzer, Case advanced in overtime and Johns Hopkins ended Yeshiva's NCAA Tournament run in the tournament's very first game as the first round of the 2022 Division III men's basketball NCAA Tournament produced a number of thrilling finishes. All four UAA teams won their first-round matchups, as did all three CCIW teams and all three WIAC teams in the tournament.

And someone willing to sit and watch from 1 p.m. ET until past 9 p.m. got to see basically all of them, as the games were spread out with new games starting on regular intervals, rather than starting every game at 5 and 7:30 p.m. local time.

While the UMHB women were rallying past Webster in the women's tournament, the UMHB men neded a little comeback of their own. And they got it, as the Cru rallied past Chapman, ending the game on a 19-1 run to win 88-81. Chapman, an at-large team out of the SCIAC, carried an 80-69 lead with 4:31 left after Jack Roggin hit a jumper, but the Cru did the rest, scoring 12 consecutive points to take the lead with 1:37 left. Chapman hit one of two free throws to re-tie the game at 81-81, but the Cru scored the final seven to win 88-81. On a night in which Josiah Johnson was held to 17 points and shot just 6-for-20, 2-for-11 from beyond the arc, Carson Hammond stepped up with 23 points and Ty Prince added 16 points and 10 assists. Chapman was led by Roggin's 34 points.

Junior guard Carson James scored a career-high 23 points and 10th-ranked Johns Hopkins held off a late surge by 19th-ranked Yeshiva as the Blue Jays advanced to the second round with a 63-59 win. JHU (23-3) opened up a four-point halftime lead to 12 points with 7:29 to play before Ryan Turell ignited an 11-4 spree to bring Yeshiva (25-4) within two at 61-59 with 1.4 seconds remaining. Turell scored nine of the 11, including a 3-pointer with 40 seconds left to make it 60-58. Turell also had a look at a shot in the lane but left it short and JHU hit three of four from the foul line down the stretch to hold on for the win. Turell led the Macs with 28 points on 11-for-21 shooting.

Penn State-Harrisburg upended a Top 10 team for the second consecutive NCAA Tournament. After beating No. 6 Johns Hopkins in an empty gym in the opening days of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago in double overtime, the Lions did it a little differently, locking down No. 9 St. Joseph (Conn.) by holding them to 30.8% shooting in a 63-53 win. Donyae Baylor-Carroll and Brandon Coleman each netted a team-high 12 points, while Zegary Scott III added 11. Leading 51-48 with less than five minutes to play, PSU-H made it a two-possession game when Coleman knocked down a 3-ball off an assist from Scott before forcing a Blue Jays turnover on the other end. Baylor-Carroll followed it up by converting a tough layup in traffic to make it 56-48 with 3:32 remaining.

Ryan Newton followed his only miss of the game with a game-winning 3-point shot with 6.6 seconds left in overtime to help lift Case Western Reserve to a 91-87 win against Dubuque in Spartan-on-Spartan first-round action at UW-Oshkosh. Newton finished 5-for-6 from the floor, a spark of 17 points sorely needed on a night in which Mitch Prendergast went 5-for-20 from the floor and 4-for-13 from 3-point range. Newton had hit a pair of free throws late in regulation, followed by Cole Frilling's block of a Peter Ragen 3-point attempt in the closing seconds of the second half to send the game to overtime. Ragen scored a game-high 32 points as Dubuque fell to 21-7. Case improved to 19-6. How Newton's shot looked:  

In addition to Case's win, UAA members Emory, Washington U. and Rochester all won first-round matchups.

A battle of at-large teams turned into an epic first-round matchup, as Mass-Dartmouth came back from 21 points down to defeat Emerson in first-round action at Nazareth. Emerson came out hot and led 38-17 with 7:56 left in the first half, 57-39 early in the second half and 73-58 with 8:10, pulling away each time after Mass-Darmouth cut into the gap. But Marcus Azor took over and scored seven points in a 9-4 run to keep it at an eight-point game at the 5:37 mark. With the same margin and 2:14 to go, Adam Seablom scored four straight points, while Jake Ashworth and Azor kept it going to make it 83-81 with 23 ticks to go. Sean Leahy pulled down a clutch offensive rebound and swung it to Isaac Percy who knocked down the shot of the day, a go-ahead 3-pointer to make it 84-83. Seablom then sunk his free throws to send the Corsairs to the next round. Azor finished with 27 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, including the 500th assist of his career.

Northwestern (Minn.) led by 11 in the first half as seven points in the second before Pomona-Pitzer rallied to win 67-66. Back-to-back buckets from Kyle Kaemingk gave Northwestern a 62-57 lead with 5:23 left, but Ty Bergman answered with a 3 and a bucket in the paint to tie it up at 62. The teams were tied again at 64 before Matthew Eberle found Joe Cookson, who drilled a 3 with 47 seconds left to give the Sagehens a 67-64 lead. Noah Alm answered with a nifty reverse layup to cut the lead to one and the Eagles managed to get a defensive stop but could not get the shot off. An attempt to beat the buzzer by Northwestern in the paint did not fall and also appeared to be released after the buzzer, allowing Pomona-Pitzer to escape with the 67-66 win. The Sagehens face host Elmhurst on Saturday evening.

Rochester won a contrast of styles and did so by pounding it inside, scoring 58 points in the paint in an 88-65 win against Eastern in a first-round game at Marietta, a battle between two at-large teams. Brian Amabilino Perez scored a career high 29 points, hitting 10-of-13 from the floor and 9-of-10 at the foul line. William Blet threw down a dunk with 12:11 to play to bring the Eagles back within five points before Rochester scored 15 unanswered, holding Eastern six minutes without a field goal.

"Winning in March is hard. I am really excited for our group. We played well and beat a good team," said Rochester coach Luke Flockerzi. "It was two contrasting styles of play. We knew it was going to be a game of runs because of their defensive intensity. We told our guys that they need to weather the storm. But we built a lead, they came back. We built a lead, they came back."

In Wash U's win, Jack Nolan scored 28 points on 10-for-23 shooting, while Charlie Jacob added 20 in a 71-58 win against Cornell. Cornell was led by 21 points from Cooper Kabela. Emory needed all 27 points from Matthew Schner and all 16 rebounds from Cale Martens to get past Averett (17-12), 65-60. Emory will face Wabash, which overcame a slow start and a 10-point first-half deficit to pick up a 91-79 win over Berry. Jack Davidson scored a game-high 34 points and Tyler Watson scored 29 points.

"It was a great game," Wabash coach Kyle Brumett said. "I felt like both teams played through some nerves in the first half. It was physical with a lot of fouls called early. There's a feeling-out process in every game. You're figuring out what the other team is going to try and take away, how they're going to guard it, and how the game is going to be officiated. I think for us it took a little longer in the first half than it normally does. We settled down and held them to 12 points in the last 11 minutes of the first half. That was important for us to get the pace going."

From the CCIW, Elmhurst started the game with a 14-1 and cruised, advancing to the second round by cruising to a 95-70 win against Washington & Jefferson. Illinois Wesleyan had double-doubles from Matthew Leritz and Cody Mitchell and turned the ball over just six times in a 73-55 win against Franklin. Wheaton won the most thrilling game of the CCIW trio, defeating Hope 71-69 at Washington U. The contest was tied at 69-69 with 21 seconds left when Wheaton forced a Hope turnover and had a key opportunity to take the lead. The Thunder shot attempt with about six seconds left fell short, but the offensive rebound was calmly collected by Wheaton's Cade Alioth. Alioth went up for a put-back basket and was fouled. He made two free throws with 2.9 seconds left to give Wheaton a 71-69 lead. Hope took a quick timeout following its inbounds pass to set up a shot attempt. The inbounds pass found a Hope player about 10 feet away from the far side of the basket. The shot attempt fell short as Wheaton emerged with the win. Nyameye Adom led the Thunder with 27 points tonight and Tyson Cruickshank scored 23 points for Wheaton.

Dom Black scored 26 points with seven rebounds, fellow senior Mason Memmelaar had 23 points, 10 rebounds and five assists and the top defensive team statistically in Division III held the third-ranked offense to 58 points as RPI defeated Nichols 78-58 in first-round action at Wesleyan. The Engineers, who entered the game allowing 57.5 points per contest, outscored Nichols 48-30 in the second half. They held the Bison to 29.7 percent shooting (11-for-37) in the final 20 minutes.