The Northwestern College men's basketball team defeated Briar Cliff 77-69 to earn the GPAC Postseason Tournament Championship. The Red Raiders, ranked seventh in the NAIA, improve to 27-4 overall and earn the second automatic GPAC berth to the national tournament. Briar Cliff ends their season with a 22-12 overall mark.
Northwestern went on the game's first run, leading 9-3 just five minutes into the first half. Briar Cliff closed the gap over a 10 minutes span and took the lead back 22-21 with under 10 minutes to play. The teams exchanged the lead six times during the final stages of the first half including an incredible final seven seconds in which Kale Wiertzema converted a three point play followed by a three pointer by Charger guard Matt Geelan as time expired which gave BCU a 36-35 lead at intermission.
With the momentum in their favor, Briar Cliff began the second half on a 12-6 to take their biggest lead, 48-41, with 14 minutes left to play. Northwestern battled back to cut the lead to two but BCU pushed the lead back to five, 61-56, with seven minutes to play. The Red Raiders then outscored the Chargers 11-0 to take the lead for good, 67-61. BCU made one more run to cut the lead down to five but a three pointer by Ben Brown on the left baseline clinched the win for Northwestern.
Northwestern shot 55% for the game compared to 43% for the Chargers. Kale Wiertzema led a balanced NWC attack with 15 points while Ben Brown netted a career-high 14 off the bench. Curt Schilling scored 12 and both Chad Schuiteman and Mark DeYounge netted 11 points. DeYounge, with a three pointer in the first half, became the 37th Red Raider player in the program's history to score 1,000 points. Briar Cliff was led by seniors Adi Cizmic and Neil Rohe with 22 and 21 points, respectively. The Red Raiders held the advantage on the glass, 31-30, led by nine boards by Kale Wiertzema.
Northwestern improves to 27-4 overall and wins their first GPAC championship since 2001-2002. They qualify for their 10th straight national tournament which will begin next week in Branson, Mo. The 32-team tournament field can be viewed at the following link: tournament field. The seedings and bracket will be released later today by the NAIA.
2007-08 Media guide
