| The atmosphere at Endicott was incredible and the Gulls’ CNE semifinal win lived up to iy. Endicott athletics photo |
WPI got knocked off in the NEWMAC semifinals, CNU survived a battle at UC Santa Cruz, Endicott got a last-second blocked shot, Roanoke got past Virginia Wesleyan and more in Friday’s Division III men’s basketball conference tournaments.
Friday is a day full of semifinals, setting up title games in more than a dozen conferences, and you can keep up to date on everything to come on Saturday and Sunday in our conference tournament tracker.
Wheaton (Mass.) knocked off NEWMAC top seed WPI, and did so with authority, as the Lyons roared past the Engineers 82-60. Wheaton will appear in the NEWMAC title game for the third time in school history, and the first time since 2005. WPI should comfortably be in the NCAA Tournament as an at-large, and if Babson beats Wheaton in the NEWMAC final, no bids will be stolen by the NEWMAC. Wheaton’s win snaps a 27-game losing streak to the Engineers, dating to the Lyons’ last win in 2012. Tristan Herry led all scorers with a season-high 25 points on 7-for-13 shooting from the floor, including 3-for-7 from three-point range and was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line. Dimetri Iafrate added 24 points, going 9-for-15 from the field to go with six rebounds, three assists and a career-high matching seven steals.
Concordia (Texas) sophomore guard Jeffrey Kirven banked in a three from the top of the key with 0.2 seconds remaining to give the Tornados a come-from-behind, 74-71, victory over Austin College in first-round action in the SCAC men’s basketball conference tournament. Trailing 71-66 with 1:14 remaining, Concordia closed out the game on an 8-0 run to overcome the deficit and advance to its first-ever SCAC semifinal. The highly contested three-pointer for Kirven was his first of the season. Aaron San Miguel led four scorers in double figures with 13 points.
Omari Deveaux scored 26 points for Virginia Wesleyan, including a layup at the end of regulation that tied the game with 0.7 seconds left, but he could not hit the and-one, and the Marlins and Roanoke went to overtime. That’s when the wheels came off for the Marlins, as Roanoke shot 6-for-9 from the floor and 3-for-3 from three-point range in the overtime to get past Virginia Wesleyan, 78-69. The loss likely leaves Virginia Wesleyan on the wrong side of the bubble. Marcus Morgan finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the Maroons, who will face top-seeded Randolph-Macon in the ODAC final.
Endicott preserved its long winning streak and kept its Conference of New England title hopes alive as Marcus Montagnino blocked a three-point shot at the buzzer to provide the final blow as the top-seeded Gulls (25-1) defeated Nichols 78-75. Montagnino, a D3hoops.com preseason All-America selection, scored a game-high 30 points, giving him 1,138 for his two-year career at Endicott, but it was the blocked shot on the final play of the game which preserved the win. It’s just his fifth block of the season. The Bison (15-12) led 51-45 early in the second half, but Endicott scored the next 10 points, sparked by a tip-in, then a layup and an and-one by Elijah Kinney. From there, it was a tight, back-and-forth battle, one in which Montagnino gave his team the lead for the final time by taking an inbounds pass, quickly spinning around the defender and making the layup look easy with 21 seconds left.
Here’s how it ended! The @ECGulls preserve their winning streak and advance to the @CNE_Sports MBB tournament final as Marcus Montagnino blocks Nichols’ three-point attempt at the buzzer. #d3hoops pic.twitter.com/fi7ChnmHKi
— D3hoops/Patrick Coleman (@d3hoops) February 28, 2026
Christopher Newport rallied from a five-point deficit with 80 seconds left to force overtime, then ended up putting host UC Santa Cruz away as the Captains won in OT, 77-74 in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference tournament semifinals. Toa Hollenbeck scored eight points in the final 75 seconds of regulation, then added four more in overtime as he finished with a game-high 36 points on 11-for-21 shooting. Mary Washington had to rally in the other semifinal as well, coming back to defeat Salisbury 55-46.
Western Connecticut shot just 33% from the floor and 3-for-13 from three-point range, but it was enough to lift the Wolves past cross-state rival Eastern Connecticut, 60-59 in overtime in the Little East Conference semifinals. Elijah Guillaume and Nick Boyce scored 12 apiece to lead Western to 20-6 overall. Western had led by four with five seconds left before Julian Sanchez hit a three to cut the lead to one. The Wolves missed both free throws, but Eastern (15-12) could not get a shot off in time. Western Connecticut will face Keene State, which has won eight of its past nine games, including a 75-72 battle at UMass-Boston on Friday night. Jordan Cooper led the Owls (17-10) with 26 points, including two crucial baskets late that kept KSC in front, including a layup with 1:48 left that made it 69-66. Kareem Porter Jr. had 16 rebounds, 10 of them on the offensive end, as Keene finished the night with 24 offensive boards. Raphel Laurent scored a game-high 36 points for Mass-Boston, as Cameron Perkins was limited to 10 points in 38 minutes.
Grinnell sent a capacity crowd home happy on Saturday as the Pioneers rolled into the Midwest Conference men’s basketball final, defeating Illinois College 94-73. The Pioneers are the top seed and hosting the MWC tournament for the first time since 2009, and set a program record for victories with their 21st, as they improved to 21-3. Illinois College scored to open the second stanza, but then it was all Pioneers as they went on a 16-1 run. Murphy began the spurt with a trey, Kai Te Huki made a layup and Tyler Copes, Gabe Garcia and Nick Lundy all scored from close range to make it 61-45. Grinnell pushed it to 66-46 and Illinois College (12-14) never got back into the game the rest of the way. Garcia led the way with 23 points, while Te Huki added 16. Monmouth defeated Lake Forest to advance to the MWC final, thanks to 35 points by Zay Brown.
LaGrange shot 6-for-13 from three-point range in the second half to rally from a halftime deficit and win going away at Maryville, 82-71 in the CCS semifinals. The conference gets an automatic bid this year for the first time, and LaGrange and Belhaven, the bottom two teams in the coaches’ preseason poll, will play for that honor. Austen Colton scored a team-high 20 points, and Devin Dowell and Micah McAllister added 16 points apiece in the win, which ended Maryville’s season at 21-5. CJ Minton scored a game-high 24 to lead Belhaven past Huntingdon 85-73, improving Belhaven to 15-12.
Gettysburg advanced to the Centennial Conference title game for the first time since 2010 and kept Franklin & Marshall on an ignominious streak in conference tournament play, as the Bullets defeated the Diplomats 69-45. Gettysburg, the top seed, led wire to wire, getting 17 points from Reece Craft and 16 from Hosh Herr. The loss means that F&M still has never won a Centennial Conference tournament game away from its home Mayser Center, in more than 30 years of the conference tournament. F&M is 0-11 away from home, and 0-7 in pure road games. The Bullets will host Johns Hopkins, which defeated Ursinus 83-71 behind a game-high 25 points from Charlie Jackson. Ursinus pulled within nine at the 3:24 of the second half, and the rest of the game became a free throw shooting display by the Blue Jays as the Bears tried to stay close. Hopkins went 12-of-14 from the line and got a dunk from Jeb Williams in the final 3:12 to secure the win and punch its ticket to the title game.
Trine knocked off MIAA top seed Olivet and will face No. 2 seed Hope in the MIAA final as the Thunder got 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists from Nate Tucker in an 86-69 win. Olivet trimmed Trine’s 24-point lead to 15 through the middle portion of the second half but the momentum was halted by a monster put-back dunk from Drew Panning. The 6-9 junior flew in to grab a missed layup and stuff it through the rim. Hope got past archrival Calvin 73-63, likely ending the career of Knights’ big man Jalen Overway, who had 15 points and 14 rebounds. Overway is expected to enter the transfer portal and use his extra year of eligibility after he missed the entire 2024-25 season because of injury. Orion Yant scored a game-high 18 points and had seven rebounds in just 24 minutes as the Flying Dutchmen improved to 16-9 overall. Hope increased its lead in the all-time series to 112-107.