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35|35 Anniversary Website
This is the 28th installment of a series of 35 moments, milestones, and facts that will be featured throughout the 2013-14 academic year to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
In the most recent edition of 35|35, the Great Lakes Valley Conference highlighted the national championship success of longtime rivals Kentucky Wesleyan and Southern Indiana in the sport of men’s basketball. Five of the GLVC’s seven NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Championships have been won by the two schools over the last 35 years.
However, in the past five years, there have been some fresh faces carrying the torch for GLVC men’s basketball. Saint Joseph’s College advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight in 2010, while Bellarmine represented the conference on the national stage in 2011 and 2012, and Drury led the league at the 2013 and 2014 events.
Thanks to Bellarmine’s national championship in 2011 and Drury’s NCAA title in 2013, the GLVC has captured two of the last four NCAA Championships.
When looking at the GLVC’s past five trips to the Elite Eight, each team had a unique run through the field.
In 2010, Saint Joseph’s qualified for the NCAA Midwest Regional which was held at Kentucky Wesleyan in Owensboro, Ky., after getting bounced after one game of the GLVC Tournament Championship. The Pumas fell on their home court at the Richard F. Scharf Alumni Fieldhouse 66-60 to former member Northern Kentucky, which left the 17-11 team hoping for a bid to regionals.
Following that six-point loss, Saint Joseph’s earned its way into the regional field and proceeded to get hot at the right time. The Pumas would stun the host Panthers on their home court 72-70 in the first round of the regional, and then outlast Grand Valley State 78-76 in overtime. Quincy University had knocked off Bellarmine in the other regional semifinal to set up a regional championship battle against the Pumas. Just one month earlier, Saint Joseph’s defeated Quincy 70-67 in overtime during the regular season, but the two teams were in for several more minutes of battle in the postseason. In the end, Saint Joseph’s survived a three-overtime thriller, 104-103, to advance to the NCAA Elite Eight. The Pumas had gone on the road and defeated three teams by a total of five points, having also played a total of two overtime games involving four extra sessions.
On March 24, 2010, Saint Joseph’s was eliminated in the national quarterfinal by Cal Poly Pomona, 69-48, ending the Pumas’ season at 20-12 overall. They were led in the game by Dayvon Sloan’s nine points off the bench, while Andrew Helmer – the team’s lone All-Conference honoree (third team) – was held to just seven points, but also dished five assists and grabbed 11 rebounds in the loss.
The next year, Bellarmine began to make its rise through the GLVC and NCAA ranks as the Knights finished the season by winning the final game on the calendar. Led by 2010-11 GLVC Player of the Year Jeremy Kendle and GLVC Coach of the Year Scott Davenport, Bellarmine captured its second consecutive GLVC Championship with an 87-81 overtime victory against Southern Indiana. At the NCAA Midwest Regional, the Knights got past GLVC rival Indianapolis 84-70 in the first round and topped Northern Kentucky 87-82 in the semifinals. An 85-66 victory over Ferris State in the regional championship gave the Knights their first-ever NCAA Elite Eight bid, which pegged them against Midwestern State in the national quarterfinals. The Knights notched a 70-64 win and then got past Minnesota State Mankato 81-74 in the semifinals to set up the national title game with BYU-Hawaii. Despite 35 points and the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player effort from BYU-Hawaii sharpshooter Tsung-Hsien (Jet) Chang, Bellarmine used a balanced team attack with five of its six scoring players in double figures, led by Kendle and Chris Dowe. Luke Sprague notched a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Justin Bendetti netted 15 points for the game, and Braydon Hobbs and Luke Sprague each had 10 points, while Sprague grabbed 11 rebounds for the game’s lone double-double. The Knights, who earned the school’s first national championship in any sport, finished the season 33-2 overall.
Bellarmine returned for its title defense in 2012 and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, which was being held just up the Ohio River at Northern Kentucky’s Bank of Kentucky Center. After beating conference rival Kentucky Wesleyan 79-74 in the regional championship game, Bellarmine traveled the short distance to secure its Elite Eight victory over Alabama-Huntsville, 82-73. The Knights’ run at a second straight national title was ended by Montevallo in the national semifinals, as an 82-73 defeat concluded Bellarmine’s campaign at 29-4. The Knights were led by Dowe, who narrowly missed his fourth straight double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Kendle added 16 and Hobbs pitched in 13 as both dished out five assists. Sprague gutted through an injured right shoulder and finished with nine points.
In 2013, the Knights were denied a third straight trip to the Elite Eight as Drury beat them 67-61 in the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship. In a way it was the proverbial passing of the torch in GLVC men’s basketball as the Panthers would lead the charge over the next two seasons. DU topped S.C. Aiken 84-75 in the national quarterfinals and then ousted Western Washington 107-97 to earn a trip to the NCAA Championship title game. The 2013 campaign marked the 75th Anniversary of the NCAA Division I Championship, so for the first time ever, the NCAA Division I, II and III national title games were held in the same city – Atlanta, Ga. In the season’s final contest, Drury quickly found itself down 17 points in the first half, looking nothing like the dominant team that had won 22 consecutive games up to the point. Behind the senior efforts of Alex Hall and Brandon Lockhart, however, Drury rallied to win 74-73 in front of 7,753 fans – the largest crowd to watch the NCAA Division II Championship final since 1971. Hall, named the tourney's Most Outstanding Player, finished with 21 points to lead four in double-figures as DU captured its first national basketball title since the 1978-79 Panthers won the NAIA championship. The Panthers finished the season 31-4 overall.
After losing arguably the nation’s best senior backcourt in Hall and Lockhart to graduation, the path back to the Elite Eight and another national championship run was going to be a difficult one. Yet head coach Steve Hesser and the Panthers reclaimed the fame and once again were poised for another run. After a disappointing loss in the Deaconess GLVC Championship Tournament at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind., Drury was still in position to host the Midwest Regional at the O’Reilly Family Event Center in Springfield. The Panthers earned a five-point win over UW-Parkside in the regional opener and then handled Lake Superior State and Michigan Tech to advance to their second straight Elite Eight. A return to the Ford Center was bittersweet for the Panthers as they won the 2013 GLVC Championship on the same court to begin their magical run to the national title. This year, however, Drury ran into a red-hot shooting West Liberty team that ended the Panthers’ season with an 85-75 outcome, leaving DU 28-4 on the year.
Despite the loss, recent postseason history has showcased the depth of the nation’s premier Division II men’s basketball league. At one point during the 2014 regular season, the GLVC fell just one vote shy of having six teams ranked in the NABC Division II top 25 poll for the first time in history.
Five Elite Eights in the last five seasons, including two national titles in the past four years.
It’s a pretty good track record and one that already has the GLVC looking forward to the 2014-15 campaign.