MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Three seed Faulkner could not hold on to a 35-28 halftime lead and was stymied on both ends by a red hot 11 seed in the Southeastern Fire on Wednesday night at Tine Davis Gymnasium in the NAIA Men's Basketball Championship Second Round.
A 23-point loss to the Eagles in December in this same venue as part of the SSAC-Sun Challenge was the start of a 1-4 lull for the Fire from Lakeland, Fla., to fall to 8-11 on the season. Since that point, they won 11 of 12 games to claim the Sun Conference regular season and tournament titles and advanced to play Faulkner by overcoming another seven-point halftime deficit on Tuesday against six-seeded Union. This time, they were ready for Faulkner.
The visitors outshot the Eagles in every category. Faulkner only made nine of 32 shot attempts after halftime and just two of 14 three-point attempts but was solid on the boards, pulling in 11 offensive rebounds while allowing only two to Southeastern. However, the Fire rarely needed the second chance points tonight. Riley Minix showed why he is a candidate for National Player of the Year, racking up 20 points and 15 rebounds, blocking eight Faulkner shots and coming away with three steals. The rest of the team combined for just four blocks, and the Eagles did not get any. Reggie Mesidor, Jalan Mull and Sean Shore scored 13, 11 and 10 points, respectively. Joshua Blazquez added eight points and seven assists.
After Minix cashed in on a three on the first possession of the first half, Riley Matticks repeated the feat to open the second and kickstart a 10-0 Southeastern run that put them on top for good. After a trade of scores and a
Trace Hill layup, the Fire broke out with another run, this one a 12-0 span. Mesidor and Mull hit triples on back-to-back possessions to end the run and stake their team to a 53-39 lead before the Eagles knew what hit them.
The first two Faulkner scores of the second half came with 15:15 and 14:05 on the clock, and it would not score again until the 7:37 mark on a
C.J. Hines three-point play. The old-finished three-pointer and a
Jonathan Garcia three-point bucket stopped the bleeding to put their team within eight with 5:49 left in the contest.
With 2:06 left in the game, Garcia was fouled on a three and sunk all the free throws, and a pair of Hines layups sandwiched one by Blazquez to put Faulkner down only 59-56 with a minute left. After a one-for-two trip to the line for the Fire,
Daniel Garmendia brought a jolt of life back to the gym with a big-time three with 14 seconds remaining and Faulkner immediately called timeout to discuss strategy. However, straight out of the timeout, Minix promptly slammed the door on comeback hopes by breaking containment off the inbound, catching the deep pass just past halfcourt and finishing the fastbreak with the layup through contact. He took advantage of the foul shot to put his team up by two scores at 63-59 with 12 seconds left and seal the deal.
Hines closed his season by reaching fifth place in the program's all-time scoring records. Needing 20 to tie, he scored 22 to reach 1539 career points and surpass Di'Mar Hill on the list. Garmendia tallied 13 points and 10 rebounds for his first career double-double in his final college game.
Trace Hill scored seven points and 10 boards to close his storied five-year career in blue and white. Meanwhile, Garcia had 13 points and five boards as a representation of the program's future.
Faulkner concludes the 2022-23 campaign with a 27-6 record, the fourth consecutive season that the Eagles have finished with more than 20 victories and less than 10 losses. Three of their losses were to the same team in Loyola, as it was the only team standing in the way of outright SSAC regular season and tournament titles. Nevertheless, Faulkner finished as conference co-champions as the two sides had an identical record in league play. Besides Loyola, the Eagles defeated every opponent on their schedule due to the earlier win over Southeastern and regular season and conference tournament wins that avenged losses to Blue Mountain Christian and Life.
The Eagles' outstanding year includes these events: a season-opening beatdown of crosstown rival Huntingdon, a comeback from 14 points down to win at Mobile, a pair of down-to-the-wire comeback victories over Life including Garmendia's buzzer-beater in overtime at home on January 19, Hines's and Hill's climbs up the scoring record book and
Isaiah Brooks's sensational slam dunking and a nomination for the 2023 Dark Horse Dunker award.
