Women’s College Basketball: Wesleyan Claims CAC Crown
Tournament host and top-seeded Iowa Wesleyan University earned a decisive 84-59 victory against No. 2 seed Haskell Indian Nations University (Kansas) Sunday to win the 2022 Continental Athletic Conference women’s basketball tournament championship.
The Tigers took control of the game early, jumping out to a 22-9 first-quarter lead. They followed with 21-point efforts in the second and third quarters to take a commanding 64-44 lead into the final 10-minute period.
The hosts followed with another consistent quarter by scoring 20 points to close out the impressive tournament performance.
Iowa Wesleyan made 49% of their field goals in the contest and connected on 10 3-point field goals.
All five of the team’s starters were double-figure scorers, led by Brittany West’s 24 points. Kyla Moore drained five 3-pointers to add 19 points. Breanna Wendland piled on 16 points while Maci Kuchta and Brielle Baker chipped in 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Haskell Indian Nations shot 44.4% but were outrebounded by a 34-22 margin in the contest. Mahpiya Irving came off the bench to score 11 points to lead the team. Tiana Guillory and Marylin Goodman each contributed nine points.
Iowa Wesleyan and Haskell Indian Nations will both represent the CAC as automatic qualifiers to the NAIA national tournament.
Men’s College Basketball: Florida College Rips CAC Tournament
Florida College scored 51 points in each half and received 32 points from Matt Simpson to capture the 2022 Continental Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament championship Sunday with a 102-82 victory against Washington Adventist University (Maryland) at Iowa Wesleyan University.
The Falcons, the tournament’s top seed, scored over 100 points in two of their three tournament games.
Iowa Wesleyan was the only score to hold them to double digits.
A 3-point field goal from Washington Adventist’s Mastadi Pitt cut the deficit to 31-25 at the 7:14 mark of the first half.
Pitt registered a game-high 33 points to lead the Shock’s strong effort.
Florida College led 51-37 at halftime and maintained a comfortable lead throughout the second half. A four-point play from Simpson gave the Falcons a 65-44 lead five minutes into the second half.
Devon Flowers scored 12 points for the Shock while Kyron Martin added 11 points off the bench.
Florida College and Washington Adventist will both represent the CAC as automatic qualifiers to the NAIA national tournament.
Prep Basketball: Danville Wins Instant Classic in 3OT Lifting Bears Back to State
In the third meeting between the two schools, did we really expect anything to be different?
Danville and WACO played two nip and tuck games already this year and Saturday was no different.
Withstanding blow after blow, both teams slugged it out like heavyweight boxers — in the end however it was the late game heroics of Cadence Williams, Ty Carr and Sawyer Nelson guiding Danville to a 46-39 triple overtime win over WACO.
Williams’ broke out of a shooting slump that spanned a month the senior missing every three he took since January 25th.
That changed just seconds into the third overtime which would give the Bears a lead they would not relinquish.
The win moved Danville to the state tournament for the first time in six years where, as the fifth seed, they’ll play No. 4 Lake Mills on March 7th at 10:30 a.m.
Williams finished with five points, but it was the monster play of senior Sawyer Nelson that Danville needed.
Nelson finished with 20 points and 20 boards to lead the Bears, while Ty Carr added 11.
WACO was paced by sophomore wing Hunter Hughes and his 11 points. Simeon Reichenbach had nine while Mason Miller chipped in with eight.
Danville is now 23-2.
WACO ends their terrific season 20-5.
Men’s College Basketball: Magnani Guides Cornell to NCAAs
Former Mount Pleasant standout Jordan Magnani delivered 15 points and six assists while playing all 50 minutes of Saturday’s MWC Conference Championship as Cornell survived Ripon 82-79.
It was the program’s first MWC Tournament title since 1994 and the Rams received automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Magnani has enjoyed a dream like senior season, eclipsing 1,000 points, earning First Team All-MWC honors and now a NCAA Tournament berth.
College Track:
Former Mount Pleasant all-state track athlete Sam Beatty cleared 6-7 to secure second place in this weekends’ American Rivers Conference indoor track championships.
Beatty qualified for last year’s national meet for Central.
College Baseball:
Iowa Wesleyan split their weekend four-pack of games with Southwestern College.
After dropping the twinbill Saturday, the Tigers came back to sweep Sunday’s games with 10-3 and 18-10 wins.
Wesleyan improved to 3-13.
They’ll take on Hannibal-LaGrange this weekend in a doubleheader.