SNU POSTSEASON NOTES - NORTHWEST MO ST  |  NCAA CENTRAL REGION WEBSITE  |  BUY TICKETS

MARYVILLE, Mo. - After a tremendous win on Saturday night over St. Cloud State to earn their first ever NCAA Tournament victory, the Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm will get an opportunity against the top-ranked team in the country as they battle Northwest Missouri State on Sunday evening at 7:30 p.m. inside Bearcat Arena.

Tickets for the regional can be purchased online HERE and all seating for the regional will be general admission. Fans can purchase single-session tickets in person at the ticket office.

Northwest has been the dominant team all season long as they enter Sunday's game with a perfect 33-0 record. However, SNU just got a massive 31 point outing from Noah Starkey and a tremendous defensive effort to knock out the Huskies 81-61.

Starkey was 13 of 18 from the field as SNU dominated the boards 40-23 and scored 48 points in the paint. Jhonathan Dunn heated up in the second half and scored 17 points while Coleman Edwards scored 11 off the bench with three 3-pointers. Zach Johnson had eight points while Quaylon Newton added eight points, six boards, and two steals. Micah Speight scored four points to go with six assists and five rebounds while Ashton Charles had two points.

Dunn continues to lead the team overall this season with 17.6 pts/gm while Starkey sits second with 14.9 pts/gm to go with over seven boards. Speight comes in with 14.4 pts/gm to go with 5.2 ast/gm and nearly two steals.

For the Beracats, they routed Minnesota State to an easy 92-61 victory in front of a capacity crowd of 2,200 at Bearcat Arena. 

Joey Witthus lead the Bearcats in scoring as he finished with a career-high 39 points. It's the sixth time this season that Witthus scored 30 or more points in a game. Other key players from the game were Trevor Hudgins who neared a double-double with 16 points nine assists and Diego Bernard also scored double digits as he tallied 20 points in the victory.

Witthus is a National Player of the Year candidate with 21.5 pts/gm while shooting 46% from behind the arc. Hudgins adds 18.6 pts/gm while Ryan Hawkins adds 13.8 pts/gm and 8.9 reb/gm.

On the other side of the bracket, Missouri Southern State pulled off a thrilling upset of Washburn by the score 101-100 behind 46 points from Cam Martin while Southeastern Oklahoma State pulled off an improbably comeback over Northern State to force overtime before taking a 115-103 win behind 43 points from Kevin Buckingham.

The Lions and Savage Storm will square off at 5:00 p.m. with the winners from each contest squaring off in the NCAA Central Region Championship Game on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The eight regional champions will advance to the quarterfinals in conjunction with the 2019 NCAA Division II Men's Elite Eight at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.
 

REGIONAL REDEMPTION
Thanks to a career-high 31 points from Noah Starkey the Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm got some redemption on St. Cloud State, defeating the Huskies 81-61 for their first ever NCAA Tournament victory.

SPOOKY SEASON
In last season's match-up, SNU scored 40 points at halftime while St. Cloud had 81 points in the win and used a 21-4 run in the second half to take control of the contest. In this season's contest, SNU scored 40 points at half, had 81 points in the win, and used a 21-4 run in teh first half to take control of the contest. 

GAC RECORD
With six made field goals on Saturday night, junior Jhonathan Dunn moved into first all-time in GAC history with 561 career made field goals, passing East Central's Braxton Reeves with 559. Noah Starkey pulled down nine boards on Saturday to move his career total to 730, just one behind Adrian Motley of Northwestern for the most career rebounds in GAC history.

SIGNIFICANT MARGIN
SNU's 20-point win over St. Cloud State is the largest margin of victory in GAC history at the NCAA Tournament. 

PUT SOME RESPECK ON IT
Led by SNU and Southeastern, the GAC went 2-0 in NCAA Tournament play for the first time in the conference's young history. Both GAC squads came in as the higher seeds against Northern Sun opponents. 

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING
It will be the first ever meeting between Southern Nazarene and Northwest Missouri State as SNU will have the tall task of trying to take down the 33-0 Bearcats in their home gym in front of an incredible atmosphere. 

COLE REMAINS HOT
Since knocking down four 3-pointers against East Central on January 19th, senior Coleman Edwards remains red-hot from 3-point range, going 33 of 68 (49%). He also went for a career-high 18 points including five 3-pointers in a 96-75 win over Harding.

DEFENSIVE SHOWDOWN
SNU held a St. Cloud team that typically shoots 50% from the field to only 44% shooting as well a 40% 3-point shooting team to only 26%. Sunday's showdown against the Bearcats is a battle of two Top 25 defenses with Northwest third in the country in scoring defense (62.3) and SNU 21st in field goal percentage defense (40.8%).

2019 NCAA Central Region
Sat., March 16
No. 6 Missouri Southern State 101, No. 3 Washburn 100 | Box Score | MSSU Recap | MSSU Quotes
No. 7 Southeastern Oklahoma State 115, No. 2 Northern State 103 (OT) | Box Score | SOSU Recap | SOSU Quotes
No. 1 Northwest Missouri State 91, No. 8 Minnesota State-Mankato 60 | .Box Score | NW Recap | NW Quotes
No. 5 Southern Nazarene 81, No. 4 St. Cloud State 61 | Box Score | SNU Recap | SNU Quotes
 
Sun, March 17
5 p.m.: No. 6 Missouri Southern State vs. No. 7 Southeastern Oklahoma State
7:30 p.m.: No. 1 Northwest Missouri State vs. No. 5 Southern Nazarene
 
Tues, March 19
7 p.m.: Regional Championship Game