Three Point Buzzer Beater By Wright Clinches GSAC Championship
Santa Clarita, Calif.- Trailing 75-74 with four seconds left, a missed free throw by The Master’s resulted in a buzzer beater three pointer by Lorenzo Wright to make Arizona Christian back-to-back GSAC tournament champions.
Game Info
- Game score: Arizona Christian – 77, The Master’s – 75
- Records: Arizona Christian – 26-4, The Master’s – 25-5
- NAIA Top 25 ranking: Arizona Christian – 3, The Master’s – 8
- Location: The MacArthur Center, The Master’s University, Santa Clarita, CA
ACU Stats For The Day
- Ese Onakpoma – 18 points
- Jalik Dunkley – 16 points, 5 rebounds
- Anthony Howell – 13 points
- Wright – 10 points
- Amaechi Chukwu – 7 points, 4 assists
- Dominic Gonzalez – 6 points
Inside the Box Score
- The Mustangs jumped out to 11-0 lead and did not look back in the half
- Within three points was the closest ACU crept (layup by Dunkley with 34 seconds left in half)
- Onakpoma topped ACU with eight first half points
- After being within one on four different occasions, ACU took their first lead of the night at the 11:49 mark (Onakpoma layup)
- TMU went right back in front and built as large as a five point edge
- With five minutes left, Dunkley nailed a three pointer to put ACU ahead 70-68
- In a span of five seconds, the teams exchanged leads with under 45 seconds to play (TMU ahead 75-74)
- Wright appeared to hit the potential game winner with five seconds to go but just missed beating the play clock buzzer
- With four seconds remaining TMU missed two free throws and grabbed the offensive board but threw the ball into the ACU front court to avoid being fouled
- Wright swiped the ball and let the three fly from the right wing and splashed home the game winner
- Watch buzzer beater
- The Firestorm won the first back-to-back GSAC tournament championships since The Mustangs three peated from 2017-19
- The win set a new program win streak record for ACU that now stands at 12 games
- ACU ended a 32 game home winning streak for The Master’s
Thoughts from Coach Rutter
“I can’t say enough about how resilient our guys have become. Masters really took it to us to start the game. Not much went right for us in the first ten minutes or so. We settled down a bit and got some stops and we’re fortunate to not be down 15* at the half. It was a very physical game and Master’s is a great defensive team. We had moments when we didn’t respond well to the physicality. Our guys kept fighting and hung around and certainly thankful for the break we had at the end with Lorenzo coming up with the ball. I think the three he made with five seconds left should have counted but it was waived off. Pretty impressive that he hit it again when given the chance.”
Up Next
Arizona Christian earned the automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament but were already in as ACU was selected as a host site for the first and second round on March 14 and 15. The season for the Master’s will continue into the NAIA postseason as well as they will also host. The 64 team field will be announced on Thursday.
