The Columbia Cougars men’s basketball team was the only Missouri school to advance after the first day (photo/NAIA.org)

The Columbia College men’s basketball team was the only Missouri school to have success in the first day of the opening round of the NAIA Division I men’s or women’s tournaments.

The men’s bracket is being played in Kansas City.  Park University lost to Mid-America Christian (Okla.), while over in the women’s bracket in Independence, William Woods-Fulton and Columbia College lost.

Three of our four Missouri schools are out and as the Cougar men move on, the Central Methodist women play their first round today.

Below is a recap of each game from the NAIA office.

No. 2 Columbia (Mo.) (29-5) def. No. 7 LSU Shreveport (La.) (18-14), 94-68

No. 2 seed Columbia (Mo.) raced to a 23-point halftime lead and cruised to a 94-68 victory against No. 7 LSU Shreveport (La.), Wednesday evening in the first round of the NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship. The Cougars will face third-seeded William Penn (Iowa) on Friday, March 18 at 2:15 p.m. CDT.

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Culver-Stockton comes up short against top-seeded team in the NAIA tournament. (photo/NAIA)

Top-seed Cal State San Marcos survived a late charge by No. 16 Culver Stockton (Mo.) to win 92-91 in the Second Round of the NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship Friday morning in Municipal Auditorium.

Culver-Stockton’s CJ Adams had a chance at the free throw line to tie the game in the closing seconds. He attempted a 3-pointer with .06 seconds remaining and was fouled. He made the first attempt at the charity stripe, but could not convert the second. After a time-out, his third try was the final point of the game.

Adams’ effort was part of a furious comeback attempt by the Wildcats. Trailing 85-74 at the 5:11 mark, Mario Gulley connected on two lay-ups and Jonathan Miller put in four-straight points to cut the deficit to 85-82. Culver-Stockton would stay within five points of Cal State San Marcos within the final two minutes, but the top-ranked Cougars held on.

Culver-Stockton (photo/NAIA)

The No. 16-seeded Culver-Stockton men beat Arizona Christian 101-83 in the first round of the 2014 NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship. The Wildcats will next take on No. 1-seeded Cal State San Marcos on Friday, March 21 at 10:45 a.m.

The Wildcats had six players score in double-figures led by James Johnson’s 21 points, who also was 8 of 14 from the field. Karl Moore also had 17 points and eight rebounds. Talib Uqdah led the Firestorm with 20 points, while Brandon Newman contributed 16 points.

Culver-Stockton (24-7) was down 19-16 with 12 minutes left in the first half before going on a 28-16 run to end the half. The Wildcats led 44-35 at halftime and opened the second half on a 30-14 run leading 71-47 with 12:25 left in the game.

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Montana State University Northern upset No. 3 seed Columbia College in the opening round of the women’s tournament in Frankfort, KY. The sixth-seeded Skylights rallied in the final three minutes for a 56-55 win over the Cougars.

Trailing 55-51, A’Jha Edwards hit a basket with 2:43 to play, and Taylor Cummings followed a minute later to tie the game at 55. Rachelle Bennett hit 1-of-2 free throws with 14 seconds left to take the lead and held off the Cougars on a last-second shot by Heather English to secure the victory.

Columbia College, Evangel, Culver-Stockton, and William Woods will represent Missouri in NAIA D-I tournaments. (photo courtesy Columbia athletics)

Men’s Tournament Bracket

–The Columbia College men’s basketball team will square off against Belhaven University in the first round of the 2014 NAIA National Championship on Thursday, March 20 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. Columbia (31-2) has the most wins of any NAIA team and is making their fourth straight appearance at the national championship and 18th overall. In the Final NAIA Top 25 poll, the Cougars remained at No. 4 behind top-ranked Cal State San Marcos (30-1), Pikeville (30-2), and William Carey (27-2).

The Cougars capped off the AMC Tournament with a dramatic 86-78 overtime victory over the Lions of Freed-Hardeman on Tuesday night. Cougars head coach Bob Burchard was honored as the Co-Coach of the Year, the third straight season he has received the award and ninth time overall.

–The Culver-Stockton College men’s basketball team will open up play against Arizona Christian University at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 19.  The Wildcats (23-7), who are the 16th-seed in the 32-team field, is matched up against Arizona Christian, which will be making only its second appearance in the tournament. The Firestorm played in the 2013 tournament, falling to Oklahoma Baptist 83-73 in the first round.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats are making their second straight appearance in Kansas City and seventh overall. C-SC is 5-6 all-time in the tournament after going 2-1 last season and advancing to the quarterfinals. Arizona Christian (23-7) earned an at-large berth out of the Golden State Athletic Conference after losing in the their conference tournament 80-77 to The Master’s College.

–The Evangel men’s basketball team will play #7 Talladega (Ala.) in the opening round of the NAIA-I national championship tournament on Thursday, March 20 at 2 p.m.  The Crusaders (23-10) are unseeded and qualified for the tournament through an at-large bid and are in the 32-team national tournament field for a fifth consecutive season. Their appearance will be the 12th national tournament trip in program history that includes seven NAIA-II tournament appearances and five in the NAIA-I event. 

The Crusaders are 3-4 all-time in the NAIA-I national tournament and have advanced to the round of 16 for three straight seasons. Evangel is 12-10 in their history in NAIA national tournaments adding their 9-6 all-time record in the NAIA-II tournament.  Evangel’s meeting with Talladega will be the first game between the two schools in program history. 

Women’s Tournament Bracket

–The Columbia Lady Cougar basketball team will take on Montana State-Northern in the first round of the 2014 NAIA Women’s Basketball National Championship on Wednesday, March 19. Columbia (26-7) is ranked 10th in the Final NAIA Top 25 poll after a runner-up finish in the American Midwest Conference (AMC) regular season and postseason tournament.

The Skylights of Montana State-Northern were an at-large selection after being ranked 21st in the final poll that was released earlier today. With a 21-9 record coming into the Championships, the Skylights are making their 11th trip to the national playoff and they hold a 7-10 record at the tournament after making their first return trip since 2006. MSU-Northern is led by junior forward A’jha Edwards. Edwards was a first team all-conference and Newcomer of the Year selection for the Frontier Athletic Conference.

Tip-off for Wednesday’s game is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. at the Frankfort Convention Center in Frankfort, Ky.

–The William Woods University women’s basketball team will face a stiff opponent in the first round, as they will take on No. 3 Westminster College (Utah). The Owls will play on Thursday, Mar. 20, with tip-off set for 1:15 p.m. CST.

William Woods earned the eighth seed, and will take on the bracket’s top team in No. 3 Westminster College. The Owls went 22-10 in the regular season, and won nine of their final 12 contests to earn the tournament’s final at-large bid. This is the sixth straight NAIA National Tournament appearance for WWU, and their seventh overall as a school.

Number one ranked Columbia College kept rolling in the first round of the NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship, with a 68-37 win over Oklahoma City at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. The Cougars, now 34-0, will advance to the second round and play Hope International (CA) on Friday, March 15 at 6:15 p.m.

Jordan Dressler recorded 21 points and 13 rebounds for Columbia, converting 9-of-13 field goal attempts. Derrick Dilworth chipped in with 11 points while Marquette Murrell finished with eight points and nine rebounds.  The Cougars dominated on both ends of the floor in the first half, holding the Stars to 5-of-30 (.167) shooting and allowing just 12 points. Columbia jumped out to a 25-6 lead over the first ten minutes of the game.

“The guys just really had a bounce in their step today,” said Columbia head coach Bob Burchard. They were focused and determined to come out strong. We knew where to be and how to defend that explosive offense. We just moved the ball well and didn’t allow their pressure to get to us on the offensive end which obviously helped as well.”

The Cougars are making their 17th appearance at the Division I Men’s Basketball National Championships and improved to 8-16 all-time.  The Cougars also matched its season-low of 38 points allowed, matching the total allowed in wins over Central Christian (KS) and Hannibal-LaGrange (MO).

Evangel University, Springfield, opened the tournament with a 64-54 win over Montana State University.  With the exception of the first minute, Evangel led the entire game shooting 52% in the first half to open up a 13 point lead.  Zack Kleine led with 18 points and four rebounds.  Victor Agbasi scored 17, thanks to 4 of 7 three-point shooting.  Evangel as a team, hit 9 of 17 attempts from behind the arc.

Evangel advances to second round play on Friday and will play LSU/Shreveport at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.

For the second time in three years, William Woods (Fulton, Mo.) knocked off a No. 3 seed in the first round of the NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Championships. The Owls rallied from a 13-point deficit to knock off MidAmerica Nazarene (KS.), 79-75. The NAIA postseason win is only the second in program history at the NAIA DI Championships. The previous was in 2011, when the sixth-seeded Owls upset No. 3 Biola (Calif.).

Junior guard Priscilla Santos came off the bench to lead William Woods’ rally with a career-high 37 points, the most of any player so far in the 2013 NAIA Division I first round. The Owls had the lead for a total of 56 seconds in the game before keeping it for the final 2:21 of play. Each time, it was Santos scoring the go-ahead basket or free throw.

William Woods (26-6) hit 11-of-14 free throws in the final three and a half minutes to take and build its lead for good. Santos was 7-of-8 during the stretch to cap a 22-point second half. She shot 15-of-18 (.833) from the line during the game and 11-of-18 (.611) from the floor. She also added 12 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season.

William Woods will meet Vanguard (Calif.) in the second round on Friday at 4:30 p.m. EDT.

Shawnee State (Ohio) beat Columbia College 62-56 Wednesday morning in the first round of the 2013 NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship at the Frankfort, KY Convention Center. With the loss, Columbia finishes the season with a 27-7 overall record.   Columbia was led in scoring by Heather English, who scored 20 points. Julie Teeple added 10 points and 10 rebounds en route to her fifth double-double of the season. As a team, the Cougars finished the game shooting 31.3 percent (21-of-67) from the field, including a dismal 9.1 percent (2-of-22) from 3-point range.

In the game that followed, Central Methodist was knocked out of the tournament 74-39 to Oklahoma City.  The game got out of hand in the first half as CMU shot just 14% and were down 39-15 at the break.  Sammie Gathercole led the team with six points on 2 of 10 shooting.  CMU finishes the season 25-8.