MONTGOMERY, Ala. – On March 12, 2020, the NAIA released the national tournament field. Faulkner, the SSAC regular season champions who finished the conference tournament with a 27-4 record, claimed a No. 2 seed and was slated to face Shawnee State in Kansas City in the first-round matchup.
Four days later, the NAIA cancelled spring sports amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The feeling of what might have been was continued a year later as Faulkner, the repeat conference champion, exited the national tournament with just its third loss of the season in the Round of 16 and Shawnee State went on to win the 2021 national title.
On March 7, 2023, both programs and fanbases finally got the matchup that never occurred as part of the NAIA Men's Basketball Championship First Round hosted by Faulkner at Tine Davis Gymnasium.
The Eagles, given the No. 3 overall seed in the Cramer Quadrant and the top seed in the Montgomery Bracket, settled this old score by taking charge early and never letting up in an 82-57 romp over the No. 14 seed Bears from Portsmouth, Ohio, to advance to the Second Round. The victory was earned by dint of a devastating shooting and stifling defensive performance.
By the time the first half concluded with a 39-28 lead for the hosts, Faulkner had connected on nine of its 14 three-point attempts for an eye-popping 64.29%, along with an overall 40.63% output, while holding the Bears to 43.33% shooting and just one-of-nine on triples. The Eagles proceeded to up the ante in the second half, converting 57.14% of its field goal tries and keeping the visitors to 34.38% on the way to winning the period 43-29. All told, Faulkner finished the night with a shooting percentage of 47.2% and three-point percentage of 57.1%. Shawnee State was only able to make 38.7% of its shots and 14.3% of its threes, as only three of 21 long-range attempts hit the mark on the Eagle defense.
Making his first start since December,
Jonathan Garcia made good on the first possession of the night with a three off a
Daniel Garmendia offensive rebound. The sophomore Texan guard promptly knocked down another from the same corner after Shawnee State got on the board, and Garmendia drained a three of his own two drives later.
In response to a trey from Tre Baumgardner III, Hines buried one to put his team ahead 12-7 and then another after pulling down a rebound and pulling up outside of the arc. With 12:03 left in the first half, Hines got the ball again off a steal by
Trace Hill and made another triple off the fastbreak for a personal 9-0 scoring streak. Hines dished to Garmendia on the next trip, and the redshirt senior from Venezuela nailed the three-ball to stake Faulkner to a 21-9 lead, all 21 of which came from long range.
After surrendering a 10-2 run to Shawnee State, Hines got the ball on an offensive board and passed to a wide-open Garcia, who drained yet another three.
Isaiah Brooks got a layup on a possession started by Shawnee State's Brandon Beavers coming down with a rebound on defense on the baseline. A back-and-forth sequence ensued, after which Hines pulled the trigger from deep to paydirt once again. With 2:04 left until halftime, Hines picked off a pass from the paint to outside the arc, and
Jeffrey Selden picked up the offensive board and bucket off the fastbreak for the last Eagle score of the half.
Holding a 54-39 lead with 12:11 left to play, Hill came down with the rebound after the Bears couldn't connect on a fastbreak opportunity, and he made a full-court pass to set up Brooks for one of the forward's signature slams, this time a two-hand jam. Garmendia followed with a three, and Garcia did the same off a Hill dime after the second Hines steal on as many Shawnee State possessions. The Bears threatened to close the gap once more with a 10-4 run to make the score 65-49, but Faulkner put it firmly out of reach at 73-49 with a pair of Hines free throws and triples from Hines and Hill.
Following an 8-2 run by the Bears, Brooks slammed the door once again in his typical way, adding further material to his case for winning the 2023 Dark Horse Dunker award. He used another two-hander with 2:48 remaining after a Hines offensive board and a dish from Garcia. After both teams put backups in with just over a minute left,
R.J. Comer got in on the fun with a trey off an assist from
Trey Williams.
Hines led off the stat sheet with 21 points, along with five rebounds, five assists and three steals. With the effort, he reached and surpassed 1500 career points. His total of 1517 sits 20 points outside of the top five all-time scorers in program history, so he can unseat Di'Mar Hill for the fifth spot this season.
Trace Hill, the only Eagle from that historic 2019-20 season still on the roster, claimed the 14th double-double of his career with 14 points and 13 boards. He has now gone past 1400 career points, and his 1408 sits at seventh all time behind Hines. Garcia and Brooks scored 17 and 13 points, respectively, and Garmendia had nine points and eight boards.
Faulkner becomes the only SSAC squad to make it to the Second Round unscathed, as Life fell to Florida College 79-77 and conference champion Loyola suffered a stunning loss at home to 14 seed Southwestern Assemblies of God.
Next up for the Eagles is 11 seed Southeastern, who used a major second-half comeback to knock off sixth-seeded Union in the first game of the day. After previously never meeting the Fire on the basketball court, the Eagles will play them for the second time this season at Tine Davis after an 80-57 Faulkner victory on December 29 in the SSAC-Sun Challenge. The Fire reached the national tournament by sweeping the Sun Conference regular season and tournament championship crowns. The NAIA Men's Basketball Second Round matchup will tip off at 4 p.m. on March 8.
