Emory, IWU, CNU, St. Thomas punch tickets

St. Thomas (Texas) survived a last-second putback attempt, Christopher Newport survived an attempt at a game-winning shot from Randoloph-Macon, Illinois Wesleyan held off Endicott and Emory rolled past Yeshiva in Friday’s games in the Division III men’s basketball Sweet 16. Four more games will be played on Saturday to lock in the full field of eight teams which head to Fort Wayne, Indiana, for the Division III national quarterfinals.

The remaining four Sweet 16 games are played Saturday afternoon and evening, with Trinity (Conn.) hosting Hood, Wesleyan hosting Tufts, Chicago hosting Gustavus Adolphus and Mary Washington hosting UW-La Crosse.

Emory didn’t go very deep on Friday afternoon, but didn’t need to, as the starters scored all but five of the Eagles’ points in the team’s 101-81 win vs. Yeshiva. The Eagles were fired up to say the least hosting their first-ever Round of 16 game as Emory scored 16 of the game’s first 18 points in front of boisterous crowd of 2,432, one which tended to favor the visiting team, to lead 16-2 at the first media timeout. A three-pointer from Ethan Fauss extended the lead to its largest of the half at 19-4 less than a minute later. Yeshiva began to put things together, cutting the lead to three at 35-32 and again at 45-42, then came back in the second half as a Zevi Samet and-one cut the Eagles lead to 68-64 with 13:08 to play. But Ben Pearce stole the ball away from Samet on the next possession and Yeshiva (22-9) was never able to cut it to one possession as Emory pulled away to win.

All five members of the starting lineup reached double figures with senior Ben Pearce going for 26 points as he recorded another double-double with 10 assists. Juniors AJ Harris and Fauss notched 19 points each and sophomore Mario Awasum and senior Jair Knight chipped in with 17 and 15 points, respectively. Fauss and Awasum both registered double doubles as well with Fauss grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds and Awasum collecting 12 on the glass to go along with four of the Eagles’ nine blocks.

Samet finished with a game-high 43 points, which gives him 2,564 for his career, good enough for No. 13 all-time in Division III men’s basketball history.

Randolph-Macon rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit, outscoring Christopher Newport 19-4 in the first eight minutes of the second half and even taking the lead on a three-pointer by Keishawn Pulley Jr. with 5:20 to play to give his team a 52-51 lead on Christopher Newport. But the Captains retook the lead, and Ethan Ward made one of two three throws with 8.0 seconds left make the advantage 59-57. Randolph-Macon had a great look at the basket, but Amr Areikat’s shot with 2.0 seconds left rimmed out, and the Captains held on and celebrated a return trip to Fort Wayne in front of a sellout crowd of 1,404 at Randolph-Macon. Ward led the Captains (24-5) with 14 points, shooting 4-for-5 from the floor and 6-for-7 from the line, while Toa Hollenbeck added 13 points. Collin Hines, the last remaining member of the CNU team which won the 2023 Division III men’s basketball national title, had 12 points, five rebounds and five assists in the win. Areikat led all scorers with 15, going 9-for-10 from the line, but 3-for-9 from the floor.

Illinois Wesleyan snapped Endicott’s 22-game winning streak, as the Titans defeated the Gulls 83-77 in front of 1,821 at the Shirk Center at IWU. Noah Cleveland scored a team-high 25 points to go with 10 rebounds and Karlo Colak added 24 points and a game-high 11 boards in the win. Endicott (28-2) trailed by 14 points on two separate occasions early in the second half before heating up, creeping within six points twice, then to five on a shot by Marcus Montagnino with a little over a minute left, and four points with 27 seconds to play. The Titans (26-4) missed two free throws a couple of seconds later, giving Endicott a chance to make it a one-possession game, but the Gulls missed two good looks at the basket and Mason Funk was able to secure the win at the foul line. Matt Boen led Endicott with 25 points, while Montagnino added 22, but was limited to 8-for-21 from the floor.

WashU nearly got every single bounce of the ball it needed in the final 90 seconds to rally from a 12-point deficit — every bounce except the last one, as St. Thomas (Texas) held on to defeat the Bears 65-63. The Celts (28-1), whose only loss on the season was against WashU on the road on Nov. 15, led 64-52 after Nicholas Buffalo hit a layup, his first points of the game, with 1:33 left. From there, the Bears (20-7) were able to force a turnover and saw UST miss three of four free throws. Meanwhile, Theo Rocca hit a three to cut the lead to nine, Anthony Pryzbilla fought his way to the basket to make it seven. Angel Johnson hit one foul shot for St. Thomas to make it 65-57, but Josh Kim found Connor May for a layup, and May hit a three with nine ticks left to make it 65-62.

With the Bears inbounding in front of their own bench, down three, St. Thomas fouled before the shot, sending WashU to the line for a one-and-one with 2.4 seconds left. Ryan Cohen made the first, then intentionally missed the second, but the Bears were unable to collect the rebound and get off a shot before the clock expired. Charles Gitonga led the Celts with 16 points on 7-for-9 shooting as St. Thomas advances to the Division III Elite Eight for the first time.