PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A chance to play in the NCAA Division II National Championship is on the line when seven seed Oklahoma Baptist (31-3) takes on Gannon (32-3) on Friday, March 27 at 6 p.m. (ET) inside UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse at Duquesne University.
Fans in Shawnee are invited to watch the game at the Noble Complex at 5 p.m. (CT)
Todd Miller and Dave Myrick will have the call of the national semifinal game on KGFF with the Franchise (KRXO) picking up the stream in OKC. Below are notes on the Bison and Golden Knights.
For the Bison:
- The Bison have a 31-3 record after a convincing 78-55 win over Cal State East Bay in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinal round on March 25. That was the first-ever meeting between the schools.
- The team's first Final Four matchup in the D2 era will come against third seed Gannon. That, too, will also be the first-ever meeting between the institutions.
- This is the third all-time date with a school from Pennsylvania. During the NAIA days, OBU played Geneva College during the 1996 NAIA Tournament and Point Park University a year later in the NAIA postseason.
- OBU is the first Great American Conference men's team to reach the national semifinals.
- OBU's 31 wins are the most in the Division II era (2016-pres.) and that win total is the most by a GAC men's basketball team. Furthermore, it's the most wins for the program since the 2011-12 team won 32 contests en route to playing for the NAIA National Championship in Kansas City, Missouri 14 years ago.
- Head Coach Jason Eaker owns a 148-84 (.637) record at Oklahoma Baptist. He's 5-1 in the NCAA Tournament and has guided the program to a trio of NCAA Tournament appearances in his eight seasons.
- During the contest vs. East Bay, a whopping eight players recorded at least 5 rebounds, led by sophomore Erik Madrid's 14. That's the first time this season OBU had that many players with that many rebounds in a single game.
- OBU finished with a season-best 58 boards and held a plus-13 (58-45) rebounding advantage by game's end.
- Of note, the Bison are 23-1 this year in games in which they've out-rebounded an opponent.
- Speaking of Madrid, he also chipped in with eight points and a career-high six blocks. That was the most blocks in an NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game since 2014.
- The Bison defense was awfully good against the Pioneers. The team gave up just 17.2 percent from deep to East Bay. That's the third-lowest percentage from an opponent this year. And East Bay managed to shoot just 26 percent overall. That's the second-worst mark of the year for an opposing team.
- Also on the defensive front, OBU held NABC Division II Player of the Year Tyree Campbell to just five points on 1-of-16 shooting.
- Senior Jackson Greene tallied a game-high 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting. That was the fifth time this season he scored at least 20. Greene also had eight rebounds, one off his season high (9 vs. SWOSU on Dec. 11).
- Terry Coner Jr. added 17 points along with committing no turnovers. He's tallied double-digit scoring totals in 31 of 33 games played this season. For his career, the Birmingham, Ala., native has reached double figures in 72 of 83 games played.
- Collectively, the Bison had six players score at least 7 points and OBU outscored East Bay 42-28 in the paint.
- In each of the last three NCAA Tournament games, the Bison have built leads as many as 16 (Central Missouri), 22 (Minn-Duluth) and 24 points (East Bay) but doing so without great three-point shooting. In fact, in the last three games, the team is 12 of 51 for 23.5 percent from beyond the arc.
- Coner Jr.'s 656 points this season is top-15 single-season scoring mark in OBU history. Plus, his 1,328 career points rank 21st all-time.
For the Golden Knights
- Gannon crushed Michigan Tech, the six seed, 75-49 on Wednesday.
- The Golden Knights forced four turnovers in the opening 8:27 and held the Huskies to 1-of-15 shooting.
- This is the first national semifinals appearance for Gannon since 1987, a span of 39 years.
- Gannon's 32 wins are currently tied at the top of the single-season record books. Two years ago, the Golden Knights also notched 32 victories.
- The name of the game for the Golden Knights is full-court, 94-feet of pressure defense. And that's not an exaggeration. It's anticipated the Gannon will apply full-court pressure for the entirety of the contest.
- They lead the nation with 22.94 forced turnovers per game. That pressure-packed defense also helps them in other areas. Gannon is second in the country in three-point percentage defense (27.8) and first in fastbreak points (24.34).
- Get this, the Golden Knights had four players in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference rank top-10 in steals: Pace Prosser (78), Mackenzie Morgan (71), Lucas Sekasi (63) and Jaden Calloway (60).
- There have been a couple trouble spots for Gannon. They ranked 258th out of 289 D2 teams in three-point percentage (30.7) and were slotted 277th in fouls per game (20.2).
- Plus, the Golden Knight's 13.5 turnovers per game were ninth in the PSAC and 200th nationally.
- Individually, Prosser, a sophomore, leads the offense with an 18.3 scoring average while hitting 89.4 percent at the foul line.
- Lucas Morgan (13.5), Precious Idiaru (11.3) and Sekasi (11.1) also average double-figure scoring totals for Gannon.
- If you take away Gannon's three-point shots, the team is hitting its two-point attempts at a staggering 56.7 percent clip (871/1536).
