Official Great Midwest Men's Basketball Championship Page
FINDLAY, Ohio – Four teams advanced out of the quarterfinal round in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championship bracket to start the process more affectionately known as March Madness during a full slate of games on Thursday.
No. 7 Lake Erie, No. 3 Hillsdale, host No. 1 Findlay and No. 5 Ohio Dominican, in order, all won their respective matchups in Croy Gymnasium to earn a ticket into the semifinals.
No. 7 Lake Erie vs. No. 3 Hillsdale will be the early game on Friday with a 5 p.m. ET tip while top-seeded Findlay faces No. 5 Ohio Dominican with a 7:30 p.m. projected start time. All games are streamed live on the Great Midwest Digital Network through Stretch Internet.
The Great Midwest tournament champ will be crowned and the nets cut down following Saturday afternoon’s 2 p.m. ET start.
No. 7 Lake Erie 76, No. 2 Walsh 67
After beating No. 2 Walsh twice throughout the course of the regular season, No. 7 Lake Erie was unfazed as it pulled off the tough three-peat.
All-conference guard Gabe Kynard lit up the Cavaliers with a game-high 26 as the Storm had Walsh down by nine in the first half. LEC’s Michael Morris made the Storm’s sixth three-point basket of the game for the first double-digit lead but the Cavaliers charged back.
Walsh’s Bo Furcron made a three to make things all square at 52-52 with just over eight minutes to play. Lake Erie responded with a 13-5 run capped by a trey from Ryan Middendorf. Middendorf was then pure on another triple from the top of the key with a minute left to play, a basket that would prove to be the nail in the coffin for Walsh’s playoff run.
No. 3 Hillsdale 71, No. 6 Alderson Broaddus 59
Alderson Broaddus beat Hillsdale in the lone matchup during the regular season, but the Midwest Region-ranked Chargers were able to get their revenge in the playoffs.
The Chargers opened the game on a 16-6 run, in part to strong team defense. But with both teams at one point combining to shoot 19-for-66, shots were hard to come by for each side as Hillsdale carved out a seven-point lead going into the break.
AB’s second team all-conference guard Mike Davis made a pair of three-pointers with about three minutes left in the second half to cut the deficit down to single-digits. The Battlers just couldn’t get tracked, shooting 8-of-35 in the first half and just over 30 percent for the game.
Hillsdale, the league’s best free throw shooting team, was in the double bonus with just over six minutes left in regulation and would make 23-of-26 attempts in the game. Senior guard Ryan Badowski had a double-double to lead three players in double figures. Stedman Lowry chipped in 14 while Nick Czarnowski added 12.
No. 1 Findlay 87, No. 8 Kentucky Wesleyan 56
The top-seeded Oilers had a great turnout from the home crowd in Croy as the sixth man cheering the nation’s 11th-ranked team to a win in their first Great Midwest postseason contest.
Great Midwest Player of the Year Taren Sullivan had 16 points while first-team all-conference guard Martyce Kimbrough led all players with 20.
Findlay was in cruise control through the entire first half, mounting a 31-point lead with just under three minutes to halftime. KWC’s Rasheide Bell made a buzzer-beating three and the Panthers would trim the deficit down to 17 but the Oilers made it tough for any other kind of rallying attempt.
UF last played Kentucky Wesleyan in front of a national audience on ESPN3 as part of the NCAA DII Basketball Showcase.
No. 5 Ohio Dominican 87, No. 4 Malone 74
ODU won for the 10th time in 11 games, riding the coattails of poised senior leadership and lights out shooting from deep. The Panthers cashed in on 10 three-point baskets in the first half alone and some athletic slams from sophomore Hasan Varence, who awakened the building with an alley-oop in the first half.
The Panthers had to overcome 29 points from two-time all-conference first team guard Ty Jordan, who scored his 1,000th career point in the effort.
ODU saw its 16-point lead from the first half dwindle down to three midway through the second half as Jordan and Mitchell Spotleson started to heat up. But Sam Hickey made a contested layup and a pull-up three in ODU’s next two possessions to push the lead back to nine.
An emphatic three-point play from Ben Casanova with just over 90 seconds restored an ODU double-digit lead and put this one away. Hickey led ODU with 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting while Varence had an 18 and 11 double-double.