| The Presidents ended up as the No. 1 seed in the South Division of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference after starting the day in a four-way tie for first. Washington & Jefferson athletics file photo by Stephen Rydzak |
UW-Platteville went on a huge run, the Empire 8 bracket fell to pieces, New Jersey City may have played its last basketball game in Division III, and two sophomores reached 1,000 career points in Division III men’s basketball action on Saturday, Feb. 21.
Conference tournament action appears lower in this recap, while seedings and schedules for all conference tournaments are in the conference tournament tracker.
After the dust settled in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, a day which started with a four-way tie for first in the conference’s South Division at 11-4 finished with a much less cumbersome three-way tie, as Chatham won at St. Vincent to help break up the logjam. Franciscan remained in the tie, getting to 20 wins on the season with a win at Bethany, while Washington and Jefferson got the top seed with a big win against Waynesburg.
Platteville had a run for the ages to earn its way into a first-round home game in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament, as the Pioneers scored 30 consecutive points to roll past UW-Stout 74-47. It was a closely contested first half with eight lead changes and the largest lead for either side being just five points. That five-point advantage came thanks to a free throw make by Joey Fuhremann with 3:16 until the break that put the Pioneers ahead 30-25. UW-Stout rattled off the next seven points to take the lead, but Lewis knocked down a pair of free throws with five seconds left to send the game into halftime even at 32.
Those free throws kickstarted what would be a 30-point UW-Platteville run that spanned the first 10 minutes of the second half. Love scored the Pioneers first five points of the half before a pair of three pointers by Aiden Wieczorek helped the lead reach 15. Max Lucey sunk a three of his own and Love capped the run with a layup before UW-Stout scored its first points of the half with 9:59 remaining to make it 60-35. Across that run, UW-Platteville’s defense forced eight Blue Devils turnovers and turned those into 14 points.
Platteville is one of three teams tied for second in the WIAC standings with 9-5 conference marks. That includes UW-Stevens Point, which got there by defeating UW-Oshkosh and dropping the Titans to 8-6. UW-Whitewater, one season removed from going 11-15 overall and 5-9 in conference, won the regular season title and is the top seed in the conference tournament.
No. 18 Hood edged Eastern 108-102 to improve to 22-3 and set a school record for wins in a season heading into the MAC Commonwealth tournament. Jevon Yarbrough notched his eighth double-double of the year with 33 points and 10 assists and Kullen Robinson added 25 points and seven boards. Eastern clawed back to a one-point deficit in the second half, but Yarbrough took from all over. He ran downhill for a few buckets before collapsing the defense on him and kicking out to the likes of Robinson and Jude Huseby.
Two sophomores reached the 1,000-point mark on Saturday, as Westfield State’s Kenney Rogers and DeSales’s Jayden Thomas each reached the milestone before their sophomore years have come to a close. Rogers’ season continues next week with the Owls as the No. 1 seed in the MASCAC tournament, while Thomas and DeSales are the third seed in the MAC Freedom. Fitchburg led 84-82 on a drive from Kobe Witherow-Bass, but a pair of free throws from A.Z. Allah tied the game. Trailing 85-84, Rogers was fouled on a baseline drive and made the bucket and completed the traditional three-point play for an 86-85 Owls lead, then on the next possession Rogers looked to operate from the top of the key, and found Joe Thomson on a backdoor cut for a layup to boost Westfield’s lead to 88-85 with 18 seconds left to play. Witherow-Bass went to the hoop to cut the lead to one with seven seconds left, then Lewis made 1-of-2 at the line for the final margin. Rogers stole the ball as time expired to ensure Fitchburg did not have the chance to tie late. Rogers finished with a game-high 28 points, dished out seven assists and grabbed five rebounds.
Catholic and Drew locked up the top two seeds and first-round byes in the Landmark Conference tournament, as the Cardinals locked down on Scranton en route to an 87-50 win and Drew won at Susquehanna, 92-84. The Cardinals (19-6, 15-3 Landmark) led by as many as 40 in the second half, holding the Royals (18-6, 12-6) to just eight second-half field goals and 1-for-6 shooting from three-point range in the win. Catholic outrebounded Scranton 39-25 and was led by 16 points from Peter Gellene. Drew got a career-high 30 points from Eli Yusavage in the win against the River Hawks.
Conference tournament action
Three of the four top seeds, including the top two, are out of the Empire 8 conference tournament, as a full slate of quarterfinals resulted in three upsets. That included No. 8 seed St. John Fisher advancing past No. 1 Sage 77-72. The Cardinals used a pair of 13-2 runs to pull out to a 15-point lead midway through the second half before the Gators (21-5) cut the lead to 60-57, then later 68-65 on a layup by Pape Tunkara. Jack Janes and Mekhi Gidney answered with a tjree and a mid-range jumper to extend the lead back out to 73-65. Jeremy Rosario got the Gators within three again on a tip-in with 10 seconds left, but Janes slammed the door with a dunk to match his career high with 17 points and hold on to win 77-72. They’ll play No. 5 Brockport, which got 19 points from Ajani Flemming and 18 from Jacob Oka to get past No. 4 seed SUNY Poly. Keuka got 32 points and 11 rebounds from Lamar Lovelace as the No. 7-seeded Wolves defeated No. 2 seed Nazareth 96-89 in overtime.
The City University of New York Athletic Conference tournament saw both of its first-round games end up in upsets, as No. 6 seed CCNY knocked off No. 3 Baruch 72-70 and No. 5 John Jay got past No. 4 seed York (N.Y.), 86-84. Baruch had not led since early in the second half but was able to stick right with the Beavers (7-19) right until the final buzzer, when the Bearcats’ Leyi Adebayo took a defensive rebound off a missed free throw and pushed it up the floor, getting a short baseline jumper off in time, but could not get it to fall. Michael Bowman led the way for CCNY with 19 points, while Chris Popotte had 16 points and 10 boards in the win.
Brycen Williams scored a game-high 27 points to lead fifth-seeded Rowan to a 73-61 win over fourth-seeded NJCU in the first round of the NJAC tournament. Williams hit four three-pointers to lead the way while Taz Cantey scored 19 points and handed out six assists. The teams were tied, 35-35, early in the second half. Rowan started to break away at the 13-minute mark as Williams scored nine points in a 13-1 run that gave the Profs a 60-46 lead with 6:14 remaining. NJCU got within 63-51, but that was the closest the home team would get the rest of the way, as a dunk by Khamai Orange with 3:57 to play expanded Rowan’s lead back up to 65-51. The loss eliminated NJCU from the conference tournament and ended the Gothic Knights’ run to the postseason, as well as their time in Division III basketball, as the school is being absorbed by Kean. Kean lost to Stockton, 78-72, in the other NJAC first-round game.
Bates won at Amherst for the first time since 1991 and advanced to the NESCAC semifinals, defeating the Mammoths 70-59 in the 4-5 game in the NESCAC tournament. The Bobcats were the only lower seed to advance in the tournament. Brady Coyne finished with a team-high 14 points, while Babacar Pouye added 12 and Sean O’Leary and Peter Psyhogeos chipped in 11. Amherst (18-7) was limited to 26.3 percent shooting from the field and just 6-of-34 from three-point range. Trinity (Conn.) survived a wild final possession in which Bowdoin had multiple attempts to score.
Here’s how it ended in the NESCAC quarterfinals in Hartford! Bowdoin had multiple looks in the final possession, including at the buzzer against Trinity (Conn.). #d3hoops pic.twitter.com/VLFFoJuYrT
— D3hoops/Patrick Coleman (@d3hoops) February 21, 2026