STANDINGS
Tiffin 4-1
West Ga 4-1
Texas A&M, Kingsville 3-2
S Illinois Edwardsville 3-2
Augustana 1-4
San Francisco St 0-5
ROUND FOUR RESULTS
West Ga 108 @ Augustana 61
Key Stat: Defensive pressure from West Ga all night was a critical factor. West Ga collected twice as many steals as Augustana (16 to 8) and also forced an impressive 31 turnovers compared to 13.
Key Moment: With an 8-point lead in the early second, West Ga went on two separate runs of 10 points and 9 points in the early second to crush any chances Augusta had of making this into a game.
Key Performance: While UWG’s Dana Lawrence again off the bench had the game high of 24 points, Billy Ahart’s 22-pont performance was impressive enough to win POG with his 6 assists and 3 steals.
Tiffin 79 @ San Francisco St 58
Key Stat: Tiffin was efficient from behind the arch, going 8 of 19, while San Francisco St didn’t have a perimeter game. Also, Tiffin had a much better assist/turnover ratio (+2 to -10).
Key Moment: After holding a 1-point halftime lead, San Francisco St opened the second half cold out of the gates, going over 5 and a half minutes before their next score, while Tiffin had an 11-point run to make it a double-digit deficit for San Francisco St.
Key Performance: Tiffin’s Justin Coyle was named POG with a game high 19 points, but his fellow post player Joseph Shepardson quietly had a great game. Despite only 5 points, he grabbed 6 offensive boards, 13 rebounds overall and 3 blocked shots.
Texas A&M Kingsville 59 @ S Illinois Edwardsville 61
Key Stat: With a lot of categories very close, the one area that allowed SIUE to prevail was the high efficiency from the floor. Despite Kingsville taking 12 more shots (55 to 43), Edwardsville matched the 23 shots made and a much higher shooting % (.535 to .418), enough to edge by Kingsville. Worth mentioning, Kingsville dominated on the boards, getting twice as many offensive boards (12 to 6) which in part allowed them so many more shots.
Key Moment: Quite simply, after getting the ball back down by two with 22 seconds left, Kingsville missed a dunk with one second left, their chance to tie and send the game into OT.
Key Performance: While points off the bench seems like a non-factor, Kingsville outscoring Edwardsville 15 to 17, the Edwardsville bench collectively, hitting 75% of their shots, where the Kingsville bench wasted a lot of opportunities, shooting 35%.
As it so happens, we don’t need the 3-way tie-breaker after all. With SIUE defeating Texas A&M, Kingsville in a tight one, the only two teams tied at the top are West Ga and Tiffin. With a standard tie-breaker, Tiffin beat West Ga head-to-head on the opening night of the tournament and therefore wins this season’s Blue Earth Classic. Congrats to BergPride on the auto rolling invite back into the Classic whenever you so choose. You can come back in the first chance in a couple of seasons, or there are plenty of other good teams in the NAAA that could play if you wanted to wait. This is the second year in a row the NAAA has won and the first conference to win this twice. West Ga is 8-2 overall in the Classic, but both have now resulted in 2nd place finishes. I appreciate everyone taking part in the tournament and hope we get everyone back again before long. Good luck in the NT!