Shepherd, Groninger Make Impact In NAIA Tourney Games
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Dale Hubler-dhubler@timesuniononline.com
A pair of former area high school basketball standouts made an impact Wednesday as their teams opened play in the NAIA Division II National Tournament.
In the 32-team, single-elimination men’s tournament, which is being played at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., 2014 Triton graduate Tanner Shepherd scored 23 points and pulled down eight rebounds in his final collegiate game.
Shepherd’s performance led the Bethel College Pilots, who fell 83-75 in overtime to Oklahoma Wesleyan.
Bethel finished the season with a record of 22-10, while Oklahoma Wesleyan improved to 26-8.
Oklahoma Wesleyan scored the first 10 points of overtime en route to the eight-point win.
Trey’von Covington scored 12 points and dished out seven assists for Bethel, while Luke Fisher chipped in with 10 points and six boards, Gage Ott and Paul Forman tallied eight points each, and Trey Burns finished with seven points and five rebounds.
For Oklahoma Wesleyan, Jake Feickert scored a game-high 24 points and pulled down six rebounds, while Josh Wilchombe finished with a double-double of 21 points and 10 boards.
KJ Malveca scored 14 points in the win, while Isaac Rowe tallied 12 points and 16 rebounds.
Oklahoma Wesleyan will play the tournament’s No. 1 seed, IU-East, on Friday.
In the NAIA women’s tournament, which is being played at Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa, the Indiana Wesleyan University Lady Wildcats beat Olivet Nazarene University 78-65.
Dayton Groninger, a 2018 Warsaw grad, came off the bench for Indiana Wesleyan and tallied seven points and five rebounds.
A basket by Groninger in the third quarter made the score 54-29, giving the Lady Wildcats their biggest lead of the game.
Nicole Ignasiak led Indiana Wesleyan with 30 points and 12 rebounds, while Anna Imhoff scored 14 points and Elaina Ededuwa finished with 10 points and nine boards.
The Lady Wildcats improved to 25-8 and advanced to Friday’s round of 16 against No. 1 seed Southeastern (Fla.).
Olivet Nazarene, the highest-scoring team in the country at 97 points per game, finished the season with a 23-10 record.
Jess Learned led Olivet Nazarene with 23 points, while teammate Maggie Schmidt tallied 10 points and five boards.
Indiana Wesleyan’s men’s team, led by 2018 Warsaw grad Kyle Mangas – the only freshman ever named Crossroads League Player of the Year – was scheduled to play their first tournament game today at 1 p.m. against Antelope Valley (Calif.).
Mangas, who averages just under 22 points per game, led the Wildcats to a 26-7 record this season, including a 14-4 mark in the Crossroads League. The Wildcats won both the regular season and conference tournament titles.
