Firestorm Head To NAIA Opening Round/Lewiston B As Top Seed
Glendale, Ariz.- No. 5 Arizona Christian Men’s Basketball traveled to Lewiston, ID, to begin the 2020-21 NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship Opening Round, presented by Ballogy. The Firestorm will be the top seed of Lewiston Bracket B and play on Saturday against Friday’s winner of the second seed Carroll and third seed Texas Wesleyan. Winner of the bracket will head to the final site of Kansas City, MO.
Game Details
Winner of Carroll/Texas Wesleyan- Saturday, March 13 at 2:30 pm (Pacific)/ 3:30 pm (Arizona)
Activity Center, Lewis Clark State College, Lewiston, ID
Event COVID and Ticket Information ($15 per ticket)- Tickets
Live Coverage
Live Video- https://lcwarriors.com/watch/?Live=201&type=Live
Stats- https://lcwarriors.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Coach Rutter’s Thoughts
“We are excited to be competing this weekend. There are a lot of good teams whose are no longer playing. Both Texas Wesleyan and Carroll are very good programs with history of success in the tournament and both present unique challenges. We have been focusing on getting better at what we do.”
Arizona Christian
The Firestorm (24-2) won the GSAC East regular season championship with a 10-0 record. Head Coach Jeff Rutter (GSAC Coach of the Year), De’Ron Kyle (Player of the Year), and Angelo Johnson (Defensive Player of the Year) swept the GSAC Awards. Robby Wilson was also selected All-GSAC. The Firestorm enter postseason action on an 11 game winning streak. ACU earns a NAIA national bid for the third year in a row and seventh time over the last nine years. They advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2018-19 tournament.
ACU Key Players
De’Ron Kyle– 18.0 points, 68 three pointers
Robby Wilson– 13.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, shoots 60.2% from the field
Angelo Johnson– 12.2 points, 5 assists, 1.9 steals
Xander Bowers– 10.6 points, 5.3 rebounds
Bryce Davis– 10.4 points, 4.2 rebounds
Darius Goudeau– 9 points, 5.9 rebounds
Series Notes
Against the Fightin’ Saints of Carrol College, Arizona Christian is 2-2 dating back to 2012. Carroll won their previous meeting played last season. Texas Wesleyan and Arizona Christian have not met previously.
Carroll (MT)
The Fightin’ Saints enter the tournament with a record of 17-7 and went 13-5 in Frontier Conference action to claim second. Shamrock Campbell was named the Frontier Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Jovan Sljivancanin, Dennis Flowers II, and Ifeanyi Okeke were also mentioned on the All-Frontier Conference teams.
Texas Wesleyan
The Rams went 10-5 in the regular season and 6-4 in Sooner Athletic Conference play. Vydal Bradford, Peyton Sallee, and Sebastian Karwoski received All-SAC honors. The Rams are making appearance number 12 at the NAIA tournament.
Roll Storm!
