Augustana started the season with high hopes as the preseason No. 2 team in the country. It has been a bumpy road for the Vikings, but they survived CCIW play and reached the conference tournament with a 74-65 victory over Illinois Wesleyan. No. 7 Wheaton (Ill.) will host the tournament thanks to its win over North Central (Ill.), 70-60.
No. 23 Amherst kept its season going by defeating Trinity (Conn.) 83-66 in the first round of the NESCAC tournament. But Ursinus, which was in the final four last year, found out it will not even get to defend its conference tournament crown. Haverford stifled rival Swarthmore 44-36 and claimed the last spot in the Centennial playoffs. Photo gallery. Saturday's men's scores.
&&g-boxl&&No. 4 UW-Platteville got 20 points from All-American center Jeff Skemp and survived on the road, winning 55-52 at No. 5 UW-Stevens Point. No. 3 UW-Whitewater nearly got caught scoreboard-watching, but won 72-68 at UW-River Falls. With the win, Platteville secured the No. 2 seed in the upcoming WIAC tournament and a first-round bye.
Mere days after being dubbed a tournament lock, No. 13 Franklin and Marshall is reeling, losing 74-67 at Dickinson despite getting 35 points from James McNally. The Diplomats shot 0-for-7 from three-point range in the loss, their second in a row, but held onto the top seed in the Centennial Conference tournament thanks to McDaniel losing at Gettysburg. St. Mary's (Md.) wrapped up the CAC's top seed with a 79-73 home win against Wesley behind a career-high 23 from Alex Franz.
No. 11 Capital needed overtime to get past the last place team in the Ohio Athletic Conference, beating crosstown rival Otterbein. OAC leader and No. 16 John Carroll nearly had similar trouble but went 4-for-4 from the line in the closing seconds to hold off Wilmington 75-72 and claim the OAC regular-season title outright. Top-ranked St. Thomas improved to 25-0 with a 71-49 win against Hamline. No. 6 Puget Sound didn't take the lead until a pair of Antwan Williams free throws with eight seconds left, but it was the only lead the Loggers needed in beating Willamette 75-74. It wraps up a perfect NWC slate for Puget Sound, the first men's team to do so in conference history. (The George Fox women did the same a few hours earlier for the first time in NWC women's history.)
Calvin ended its MIAA schedule with a thud, losing 68-66 at Kalamazoo. Henry McCain's jumper in the paint with four seconds left gave the Hornets the lead, which the Knights couldn't answer at the buzzer. Defiance spoiled Franklin's chances at getting the top seed in the HCAC with a 92-89 win at Franklin's Senior Day. Transylvania won 78-74 at Anderson to claim the top spot. Wittenberg clinched its 53rd consecutive season at .500 or better by beating Kenyon 68-44. The Tigers haven't had a losing record since 1955-56 and have had a winning season every year since 1967-68. They can clinch a winning record by beating Kenyon again Tuesday in the NCAC quarterfinals.
Brockport State beat Geneseo State 86-81 to drop the Blue Knights into the foreshadowed four-way tie for first in the SUNYAC. The win got Brockport into the tournament, while Geneseo (17-8, 11-5) remains the top seed and will host the Golden Eagles in a Tuesday quarterfinal. Oneonta (16-9, 11-5) is the fourth seed, Oswego (15-9, 11-5) the third seed and Buffalo State (14-10, 11-5) the second seed. Cal Lutheran and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps beat Whittier and Pomona-Pitzer to each take a one-game lead on the other two in the SCIAC's second-to-last game before a four-team conference tournament.
Grinnell's John Grotberg broke the NCAA career three-pointer record, hitting his 517th in a 99-75 win at Monmouth. Not surprisingly, the previous record was held by a Grinnell player: Jeff Clement. Grinnell will host the Midwest Conference tournament. Grotberg has 2,796 career points, 102 short of second place in D-III history.