The Northwestern College men’s basketball team finished the 2008-09 season with a winning record for an NAIA-record 14th straight season. The Raiders finished the regular season tied for fourth place in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) with an 11-7 record. They entered the Team1.jpg)
conference tournament as the fourth seed, losing to Hastings in the quarterfinals, 89-70, to end the season with a 16-13 overall mark. It marked the first time during Head Coach Kris Korver’s nine years that the Raiders failed to qualify for the national tournament. Four players, led by GPAC Player of the Year and first team NAIA All-American Kale Wiertzema, earned postseason honors.
Coming off back-to-back trips to the NAIA Division II national Final Four, the Raiders began the season ranked 13th in the NAIA preseason poll and were picked to finish second by the coaches in the annual GPAC preseason poll. Northwestern returned three starters and eight letterwinners from the 2007-08 season and they began the season by splitting a pair of games against DAC teams Jamestown (N.D.) and Valley City State (N.D.). The Raiders then traveled to Bellevue (Neb.) for a rematch of last year’s national semifinal matchup in which the Bruins defeated Northwestern, 70-67. Coach Korver’s squad defeated the Bruins, 92-88, and ended Bellevue’s three-year and 43-game home win streak. The Raiders then finished the 2008 portion of their schedule with a 5-6 record, ending with a close 87-76 rematch loss to Bellevue at the Pizza Ranch Classic.
Northwestern ran off seven consecutive wins to start the 2009 year, capped by a thrilling, last-second 72-70 road win at GPAC rival Dordt in which Ryan Hoogeveen tipped in a missed shot at the buzzer. Climbing back into the national rankings, Northwestern continued its outstanding play with wins over USF and a nationally ranked Concordia (Neb.) squad. Tied for second with four games left to play in the regular season, NWC looked poised to make another run at the GPAC regular season title. The Raiders, however, lost three straight games by a combined five points and ended the regular season with a loss on the road to Briar Cliff to earn the fourth seed in the GPAC tournament. Facing Hastings, the Raiders led at halftime but the visiting Broncos shot past NWC in the second half to end the season.
Senior guard Kale Wiertzema led a trio of NWC players on the all-conference teams. Wiertzema earned player-of-the-year honors after leading the GPAC averaging 19.3 points per game. He finished his four-year career 13th all-time with 1,576 points, tied for ninth with 158 three-pointers and 10th with 376 assists. Wiertzema also earned first team NAIA and State Farm All-American honors. Juniors Ben Brown (Orange City, Iowa) and Michael Jiskoot (Orange City, Iowa) received honorable mention all-GPAC honors. Two Raiders, Jiskoot and senior T.J. Philips (Le Mars, Iowa), were named NAIA Scholar-Athletes.
2009-10 Media Guide
