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| Midwestern State | Arkansas Tech |
| Recap |
WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Fifth-ranked Midwestern State is moving on the NCAA Division II Elite Eight for a third consecutive year after a 77-61 win over #15 Arkansas Tech on Tuesday evening in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional finals.
The Mustangs defeated Washburn 72-63 in Sunday's regional semi-final to get the championship game, while the Wonder Boys got past a Lone Star Conference opponent for the second consecutive game as they slipped by Tarleton State 64-63 in overtime in the other semi-final to advance.
Midwestern State came in looking for their 18th consecutive home court victory under the dome and have won 53 of their last 54 games in Wichita Falls.
Arkansas Tech, on a six-game winning streak and playing in a regional final for the first time in school history at the Division II level, started out hot from the field in the game's first five minutes, hitting four of their first six shots to take a 9-7 lead over the Mustangs.
The Wonder Boys cooled off considerably after that, hitting just six of their next 22 shots to end the half.
Senior David Terrell's blocked shot on the defensive end led to fast break points for Midwestern State as senior Michael Loyd's layup on the other end and foul by the Wonder Boy's Jeremy Hoard resulted in the Mustangs taking the lead at 14-13 with 11:56 left in the half.
Junior Kevin Grayer provided a defensive spark off the bench for Midwestern State, coming down with a key steal and rebound to keep the game tight. The Mustangs were able to control the boards in the first half, outrebounding the Wonder Boys 26-16.
Tech took their largest lead of the first half during a 5-0 run culminated by a Johnie Davis tip-in, making it 21-16. Davis, with 19 points in the game, moved into tenth on the Tech all-time scoring list with 634 points.
Back to back layups by Michael Loyd and junior JaMichael Rivers cut the lead to one point at 21-20 with 5:35 left.
A ten-foot jumper at the free throw line by senior Kevin Loyd tied the game at 24 at the 3:29 mark of the half.
Terrell's reverse layup right before the shot clock expired tied the game at 29-29 with :06 left before intermission.
After a Tech timeout, Davis' three-point attempt at the buzzer was long, ending the first half.
Midwestern was led by Rivers' eight first half points, while Tech was paced by senior Mykel Cleveland's nine points.
Both teams came out firing to start the second half. Midwestern hit five of their first seven shots, while the Wonder Boys hit on three of four from the field, tying the game at 38.
Rivers trey at the 16:10 mark started a 10-3 run for MSU over a 3:21 time span, but the Wonder Boys' Will Paul hit a trey to bring it back to a two-point game at 46-44 with 13:10 left.
Grayer's drive to the bucket with 9:26 left in the contest put Midwestern State up 55-48, part of a 9-1 run over a 3:18 time span.
Paul broke the run at the charity stripe to cut the lead to 55-49.
Arkansas Tech turned to a full court press defensively, trying to force the Mustangs into turnovers, but MSU was able to handle the pressure. Rivers layup made it 61-51 in favor of Midwestern State with 5:58 left in the game.
Midwestern State then went on a 12-3 run over a 2:59 time span to put the game away, making it 73-58 enroute to the 16 point win.
The Mustangs were paced by Loyd's 19 points, while JaMichael Rivers added 16 and Kevin Grayer 13.
The Wonder Boys were led by Davis' 19 points, while senior Will Haney had 12.
Midwestern State improved to 29-3 overall as they advance to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight starting March 21st in Highland Heights, Ky at the Bank of Kentucky Center. They will take on West regional winner Western Washington at 2:30 p.m.
Arkansas Tech closes their season at 26-6. |
Game Notes |
| Midwestern State Mustangs |
- The Mustangs move to within one win of their school-record 30 triumphs in both 1973-74 and 2009-10 with a 29-3 mark.
- MSU goes 59-1 in its last 60 home games – a school record over a span of 60 encounters in Wichita Falls and fourth-best nationally among all college divisions behind Findlay (85-1), West Liberty (65-1) and Kansas (63-1).
- Midwestern State continues to dunk with the best nationally with just under 15 percent of its field goals coming on these high percentage shots.
- MSU began the evening tied with Bellarmine (Ky.) for the third-most victories in DII basketball since 2008-09 at 109 – 27-plus victories per season over four years.
- Senior guard Melvin Clark adds to his school career record participation in four teams with a composite 110 victories since the 2008-09 campaign.
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| Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys |
- Arkansas Tech advances to its first-ever NCAA Division II Elite Eight in its first trek to the Regional final. The Wonder Boys have won seven consecutive contests and 16 of their last 17 outings.
- Head coach Doug Karleskint goes to 26-6 in this campaign after finishing 25-6 in his first year as a head coach. He's already sixth on the school's all-time wins' list for hoops' coaches.
- ATU is 6-1 in neutral site contests in 2011-12. The 2012 GAC champions also are 5-4 when tied at intermission as in tonight's 29-29 scene setter.
- The Wonder Boys are now 16-6 in NCAA DII postseason activity and 82-49 in both NAIA and NCAA Championships. They were 66-43 in 68 seasons as a member of the NAIA (1927-95).
- Tech remains among the Top 60 in DII in scoring offense with just over 76 points per game and is 33rd this week in scoring margin with a 9.2 average entering the title game.
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| Quotes |
| MSU |
MSU coach Nelson Haggerty
Opening Statement
"What another great game, what a Regional Final. I mean, Arkansas Tech, those guys do an incredible job. They are just a hard guard. They really were. They spread the floor good and as well as they shoot, they are just as good at penetrating and finding guys. I thought they got some loose balls and were rebounding it. The guards do such a great job chasing balls down. What a great team they are. We definitely had to play our best ball to beat them. That second half, we really shot at a high clip, we shared the basketball and made plays for each other. We really did and in the meantime, we guarded them well and got rebounds when we needed to."
On feelings at half time
"I didn't feel good about it, son (Kevin Grayer). Shoot. Well we are so good at getting to the basket; I get nervous about that kind of stuff anyways. I mean these guys know what it is. You can tell at half time, they already knew what needed to happen, like they were driving the ball on us way too much. A lot of it was one on one type stuff. So we challenged each other to get down and guard. That is what this team is about. That is what we do. We should be able to do it. These guys step up and guarded and challenged the shots. You know even when we play small, D.T. (David Terrell) was able to get out and block a three point shot. I mean those kinds of things are intimidating. I think on the other end, we shot the right shots. Kevin Grayer just took the game over. He started at the four, but even at the three he was mismatched. He was just getting to the paint and making plays for himself and other guys. Like you said about J. Mike (JaMichael Rivers), they make a three and he turns around and bangs one. He is so confident in his abilities and in himself. Once he gets in a rhythm, he is hard to keep from making buckets. He attacked the basket very well and took on the challenge of guarding Johnnie Davis. That is the guy he wanted to guard. That is just the way he is built and he took on that challenge. And like he said I think the way he guarded fueled him offensively. Mike (Michael Loyd) was just a steady force for us all game long and these past two games. He has just been so solid and making the right plays and the leader of us. I felt he guarded well too. He really did a pretty great job keeping Cleveland (Mykel Cleveland), especially in the second half, keeping him out of the paint. It was an all around team effort. I can name plenty of guys that made so many plays for us. That is how it has been for us this season."
MSU Kevin Grayer
On his performance
"Well being an undersized forward, I always have to buy time and be active. I can't rely strictly on height or anything like that or even just jumping high. I have to see it come off the hand and anticipate where its going to go off the rim. So, usually being a four a have a miss match off the dribble and pretty much every game. Pretty much when I get it, I just attack to help myself and my teammates."
MSU Michael Loyd
On defense
"They spread the floor, they have some driving lanes but when we guard we can get easy buckets. Like we work on guarding and it turns into easy baskets for us. That is how we like to play, up tempo. As long as we focus on defense, it usually turns out pretty good for us offensively."
MSU JaMichael Rivers
On his performance
"I like playing with an intense crowd. I can score the ball but I like to defend too. Me playing defense can pick up my offense. So it got me going."
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| Arkansas Tech |
Wonder Boys coach Doug Karleskint
Opening Statement
"Congratulations to Midwestern State, they are a great team. Coach Haggerty has done a great job in his first year. He's a good friend of mine and I'm really happy for him. I'm really proud of our guys and how much progress they made this year. I'm just really proud of how they fought. Midwestern State really dictated us in the second half. I think that's was the difference. I see that they shot sixty five percent in the second half and I know pretty much throughout the half it was high seventies. We held them to 29 in the first half and they ended up getting forty eight off of us. We really couldn't keep their guards in front of us. They played exceptionally well in the second half. To play in this region's championship game, I think is a big accomplishment considering how good and how deep it is this year. I'm just really proud of our guys and how they stuck together through this. "
On the atmosphere at Midwestern
"The energy in the building was unbelievable. You could feel the energy when we walked in at 5:30 with the people in the stands. Midwestern really just had great support tonight. I thought they fed off the crowd and that was one of my concerns. It was a big time atmosphere out there and they rose to the occasion. It provided them with a lot of energy, especially when they were creating shots. "
ATU Matt Haney
On the second half scoring
"We just kind of got in a rhythm. But it seems like every time we started to make a run they came right back and made one. I thought we had some defensive lapses and they started getting easy buckets and got away from us."
ATU Mykel Cleveland
On defending Midwestern
"One of the problems we had was offensive rebounding. We just kept tipping and tipping and somehow it would just fall in their hands and they got some easy putbacks. The game came down rebounding and stops. We just couldn't get one in a pressure situation. "
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