Men's Basketball | 3/8/2012 2:13:00 PM

Point Lookout, Mo. – After surviving an overtime scare, the Bulldogs are now preparing to take on the 12^th seed of the NAIA Division II tournament, Saint Thomas University of Florida.  The game is scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m. (CT) on the campus of College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo.

Last night’s 69-63 victory over Dakota State, brings the record of McPherson to 31-3 and continues their nine-game winning streak.  DSU is now done for the season, finishing with an 18-13 record. 

It was a very tight game with nine ties and neither team leading by more than single digits.  McPherson seemed to be in control of the second half as they only trailed for two minutes and owned the largest lead of the night at 47-40 with 13:30 remaining in the game.  Both teams committed 15 turnovers and shot 40 percent for the contest, keeping the game close. 

Poor shooting almost did McPherson in as they shot 10 percent from beyond the arc, finishing the game 1-of-10. After going 13-of-26 from the field in the opening period, the Bulldogs were only able to hit 33.3% of their shots in the second.  They shot 50 percent from the free-throw stripe for most of the game but were able to hit 9-of-10 in overtime for all nine of their points in OT. 

Aaron Frazier (McPherson, Kan.) led all scorers on 7-of-15 from the floor and 12-of-17 from the charity stripe for 26 points, making him the second leading scorer of the tournament thus far; he also had three steals, three assists and 11 rebounds for his second-straight double-double, third on the year.  Samson Shivers (Houston, Texas), Jordan Crawford (McPherson, Kan.) and Jake Reinhardt (Walton, Kan.) each added 10 points to the winning effort; J. Crawford also accumulated 10 rebounds for his 8^th double-double this season.

If the Bulldogs are triumphant against the Bobcats, then they will play on Saturday against the winner of the No. 4 Dordt vs. Warner Pacific game.

Scouting Saint Thomas University

STU survived a scare themselves as they were outscored in the second period against Indiana Tech but pulled out the win, 58-55.  They are now 23-8 this season and have only lost two since December 1, 2011 with their most recent loss coming the game right before the tournament against Warner University of Florida, 80-89.

In their matchup with Indiana Tech, the Bobcats were led by Eugene Davis who scored 14 on 4-of-13 shooting.  David Nesbitt, Kevin Hincapie and Everson Lacerda were the other two in double figures with 12, 11 and 10 respectively; Lacerda added 12 rebounds to give him his fourth double-double of the year. 

As a team, STU did not shoot very well, only hitting 38.2 percent of their shots from the field for the game, including going 2-of-7 from three-point range.  They also struggled from the free-throw stripe, hitting 14 of their 27 attempts.  Saint Thomas’ bench produced a mere nine points on 4-of-13 shooting.  The team was out-rebounded 28-38 and could only grab nine offensive boards. 

This season, Hincapie leads the Bobcats in scoring with 13.29 points per game and is closely followed by the 13.03 of Nesbitt who does average a team high 6.8 rebounds each outing.  Hincapie is also the top assist (2.42) and steal 1.52) man for STU.  Davis and Nesbitt are both hitting over 80 of their free-throws this season putting them third and fourth in the Sun Conference.

Saint Thomas University averages 71.36 points per game while giving up a conference leading 66.84.  They are hitting just over 70 percent of their free-throws on the year and 31.5% of their three balls, making 4.58 each time out.  The team is averaging 12.81 offensive rebounds and 11.42 assists as well as committing 22.58 fouls per game.