BOLIVAR, MO. . Winning their first NCAA Tournament game in 15 years infront of a home crowd of over 2,000, Southwest Baptist University hung on for a 75-70 win over St. Edwards. SBU last won a NCAA Tournament game in the 1990-91 season in their last appearance.
"It was a hard fought game, and we're glad to be moving on," Head coach Jeff Guiot said. "It's not very often you can turn the ball over 25 and advance. I think we offset that by shooting 63 percent."
Senior Deon Davis led SBU with 14 points as Jason Jemison recorded 12 and Frans Steyn with 10. Sheldon Pace led all rebounders with six rebounds and had nine assists. He also became the SBU single season holder for steals with 69 breaking Marvin Williams record from 25 years ago of 68. Shawn Weinstein had 20 points for St. Edwards.
The Bearcats showed their roar early by jumping out to a 22-7 lead in the first eight minutes of the game. Just as it looked like SBU was going to run away with the game, St. Edwards came charging back. Over the next eight minutes, St.EU had a 21-10 run to cut the lead to four, 32-28. At this point, SBU ran right back at the Hilltoppers with a 13-3 in the final 4:01 to take a 14-point lead at the half, 45-31.
St. Edwards cut SBU's lead to 10 in the first minute on two straight buckets only to see SBU race to an 18-point lead, 57-39, in the next 4:21 . The 12-4 run gave SBU their largest lead of the game. Again, just as it looked as if SBU would run away with the game, the Hilltoppers found a way to keep in the game.
SBU kept a double-digit lead for most of the second half until the 3:14 mark when St.EU's Daniel Pierre made a layup to put the Hilltoppers within eight. With 2:26 left to play, St.EU was within five on a Jeff Obersteller shot off the backboard. Just 27 seconds later, SBU's Davis hit a key layup to put the Bearcats back up by seven. Jesus Lopez made it a nine-point game with 47 seconds left but yet the Hilltoppers did not go away. They brought the lead down to four, 74-70, with 00:05 left but Danny Norman hit 1-of-2 from the free throw line to seal the win.
The win for SBU gave Jeff Guiot his first NCAA postseason victory as he is now 1-1 in the NCAA Tournament.
SBU will now face NW Missouri State for a fourth time this season at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 12, in the Meyer Sports Center .
