Regional Recap – How the East Was Won
By Chris Granozio
The Southern New Hampshire Penmen used a 17-0 blitz over the final 6:40 to surge past top-seeded host St. Michael’s in the NCAA East Region Championship Game, 73-61, earning a record eighth East title and punching their ticket to the Elite-8, which kicks off with four games next Tuesday in Evansville, Indiana.
SNHU, seeded third in the regional, captured its region-best 10th straight win (the only team that has won its last game) earning the seven seed in the national quarterfinals. Jack Perri’s club will take on the second-seeded Nova Southeastern, the defending national champions who are also ranked #1 in the last NABC Top 25 Coaches’ Poll.
Regional MVP Matt Becht, who has knocked down a D2-high 126 threes this season, totaled 18 points and eight rebounds for the Penmen, who also received impactful performances from Noah Kamba (16 points, 4-7 from 3, including a trey with 2:37 to play that gave his team the lead for keeps at 63-61) and Preston Santos (14 points, seven rebounds). Even Alex Rivera, who had sat out the previous two rounds and had been battling a painful knee injury, saw 15 minutes of court time in a reserve role and produced five points.
Played in front of yet another large, raucous crowd at the Ross Sports Center, the game appeared to be going the home team’s way as the Purple Knights constructed a 38-29 lead before settling for a 40-34 advantage at the break. The second half was a tug-of-war, featuring seven of the game’s 14 lead changes occurring over an 8:12 stretch), and St. Mike’s was on top, 61-56 following a Darrel Yepdo 3-ball with 6:41 left. But stunningly, those would be the last points the hosts would score on the night as they went on to miss their final 18 shots from the floor, amazingly without getting to the line or committing a turnover the balance of the ballgame (SMC’s four turnovers were its fewest in nine seasons) in seeing their six-game NCAA home-court win streak evaporate. Manhattan transfer Romar Reid led five Purple Knights in double figures with 18 points in his final collegiate contest, but his team shot an icy 28% from the floor (SNHU was 39%) and was outworked at the stripe (24-29 to 11-17), the primary culprits in the setback.
Southern New Hampshire improved to 5-0 this season at the Ross Sports Center (the last four during the postseason), including 3-0 vs. St. Michael’s, which hadn’t played host in this tournament since 1960, 13 years before the Ross Sports Center had even opened its doors. The Penmen improve to 31-21 all-time in the NCAAs, reaching this hallowed ground for the first time since 2015 in Springfield, when they ousted defending regional champ Southern Connecticut in the title game, 75-58. That season, SNHU also met up with an Elite-8 opponent from the Sunshine State in Florida Southern (coincidentally, this year’s South Region runner-up), falling to the eventual national champions, 81-75 in the national quarterfinals. It’s also interesting to note that the Penmen will run into an old friend in Evansvile, namely Evan Guillory, who suited up for SNHU last season and who now starts for West Region Champion and sixth-seeded Cal State-San Bernardino.
Southern New Hampshire is the second 3-seed in our region to win the East since the field was expanded to 64 teams in 2003, the other being Bentley in 2010.
East Reginal Winners by Seed:
#1 Seed - 11
#2 Seed – 4
#3 Seed – 2
#6 Seed – 2
#4 Seed – 1
#7 Seed – 1
(No #5 Seed or #8 Seed have won to date)
The school formerly known as New Hampshire College snapped a tie with now-Division 1 Sacred Heart for most East/Northeast/New England regional crowns with its eighth (Cheyney has nine and Jefferson/Philadelphia Textile five from the old East Region, now known as the Atlantic).
Most Regional Titles (East/Northeast/New England):
8-Southern New Hampshire
7-Sacred Heart
6-Bridgeport
4-Bentley, Assumption, St. Michael’s, American International (two vacated)
3-Stonehill, Saint Rose, Adelphi, UMass-Lowell
Most Regional Titles Overall:
19-Kentucky Wesleyan (two vacated)
10-Florida Southern/Northwest Missouri State
9-Cheyney, Cal-Bakersfield
8-Southern New Hampshire, Virginia Union, Evansville, Metropolitan State, North Alabama, North Dakota, South Dakota State
Other historic tidbits: This was the first time since 2011, when Bloomfield defeated Bentley, 75-71, that the top seed had lost the championship game on its home floor.
In addition, this was the 10th time since its founding in 1980 – and second straight season – that the Northeast-10 Conference has boasted two teams in the regional championship game, and all have occurred in the past two decades:
All-Northeast-10 Regional Finals:
2004-UMass-Lowell 63 Bryant 62
2005-Bryant 74 Bentley 64
2006-Stonehill 89 UMass-Lowell 80
2007-Bentley 73 Bryant 64
2008-Bentley 88 Assumption 72
2014-Southern Connecticut 78 St. Anselm 72
2015-Southern New Hampshire 75 Southern Connecticut 58
2016-Stonehill 82 St. Ansel 76 (OT)
2023-New Haven 69 Bentley 60
2024-Southern New Hampshire 73 Southern Connecticut 61
This is especially impressive since this was the first season since the field expanded to 64 in which as few as three NE10 teams were in the tournament, and two played each other in the opening round, no less!
With last year’s regional champ New Haven ravaged by graduation, there have still been no repeat regional champs since Bentley in 2007-08.
How They Got to the Championship
Southern New Hampshire earned the right to represent the region by grinding out three games over four days. The run began with a 75-70 victory over Bloomfield. Kurtis Henderson – who hit the game-winner when the two teams met in New Jersey back in December – racked up 20 points (5-6 from beyond the arc), six assists and four steals, while Becht contributed 19 points. Izaiah Poole notched a career-high 25 points for the Bears, who remain the only CACC program ever to boast a regional banner on either the men’s or women’s side of the sport, in 2011. This game featured only one double-digit gap (25-15 SNHU), and Henderson’s trifecta with 35 seconds remaining proved the dagger, stretching the lead to 73-66.
SNHU then matched up with another non-league opponent it had squeaked past during the season: Post. Becht (17 points, 4-6 from 3) and Derrick Grant (14) were the ringleaders in this one, which saw the Penmen nail 11 of their first 18 shots (7-10 from deep), opening up as much as a 39-26 advantage before the Eagles rose from the dead, creeping within a point (53-52) on a Deng Deang three with 7:45 to go. Grant answered with a lay-up 12 seconds later, sparking a 9-0 run that expanded the gap to 63-52 at the 3:48 mark. Post – which received solid games from Bol Akot (16 points) and Robert Sanders (15) – again rallied with eight straight, drawing within a deuce (62-60) on an Akot free throw with 1:46 on the clock. In the closing seconds, Deang misfired on two potential tying 3-pointers, sandwiched around a pair of Kamba misses at the line, the last deep attempt being blocked by Grant and setting up Becht’s clinching foul shots. The loss was just the second in 15 games this season for the Eagles that was decided by five points or fewer – both coming at the hands of SNHU, as it turns out.
Prior to that barnburner, Post had made quite the splash in its first-ever NCAA Tournament tilt, knocking off second-seeded and #15 St. Thomas Aquinas, 80-72 to sweep the season series in a battle of the least experienced team in the field vs. the most experienced (this was STAC’s ninth straight year competing in the NCAAs – more below). Deang exploded for 31 points (13-23 FG, 4-7 from distance) and 10 rebounds for the Eagles, who also saw Akot tally all 13 of his points after intermission, including his team’s last five markers. Post built as much as a 61-49 lead following a Deang put-back with 9:22 to play, and the margin was 67-58 inside of the five-minute mark when the Spartans came to life, using their signature trapping pressure to uncork a 12-2 run, edging in front 70-69 on a Rich Smith free throw with 2:04 left. The run would come to an end after that, however, as Post closed out the game with an 11-2 flourish, the go-ahead basket courtesy of point guard Quest Harris’ running bank shot in the lane, as his team became the only lower seed to prevail in this regional until the title game. James Patterson was high man for Aquinas with 31 points (14-14 FT), 12 rebounds and four steals in his final appearance with the Spartans as his team shot a season-low 31% from the floor (STAC shot a combined .355 over its last three games after a .464 clip through its first 28).
Most Consecutive NCAA Tournament Appearances (East/Northeast/New England):
15-Assumption (1963-77)
9-St. Thomas Aquinas (2016-24)
8-Adelphi (1995-2002)
(Jefferson appeared in 11 straight, though the Rams were in another region at the time)
A few notes on Post: its 21 wins this season are an NCAA-era record (the team was also 21-9 as an NAIA club in 1998-99). And Ironically, the Eagles become the first regional team to win its NCAA Tournament debut since St. Thomas Aquinas turned the trick in a heated 92-90 victory over Southern Connecticut in 2016.
St. Michael’s journey, which began in the fall when the NE10 coaches picked the Purple Knights last out of 12 teams in the preseason poll, surprising just about everyone this season, winning the NE10 by three lengths, its season crescendo reached in the regional semis in an 86-62 beat-down of Daemen – the only blowout of the regional. C.J. Crews led a balanced attack with 16 points (4-8 from downtown Burlington) and four assists off the bench for the Purple Knights, who led from start to finish, opening up leads of 28-9, 47-31 (halftime) and 79-45 before the Wildcats ended the affair with a 15-5 flurry over the last four minutes to make the final a little more respectable. Alan Brzyzinski (15 points, 6-8 FG, 3-5 from 3), Reid (14 points, four assists) and Nolan Marold (14 points, 6-8 FG, 10 rebounds) all played integral roles for the Purple Knights, who shot a regional-best 53% from the floor and 17-35 from long range (DU was 36% and 5-21 by comparison). Daemen – which scored three times as often from the foul line (15-5), albeit with a poor percentage (15-28) – received 12 points from Dylan Fasoyiro and 10 from coach’s son Nick MacDonald, all of which came in the last 10:51. This was St. Mike’s first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2001, when it lost to Adelphi in Old Westbury, NY and the final score represented its largest margin of victory in its 13 NCAA appearances behind a 97-58 thumping of Adelphi in 1958.
The Purple Knights held off league rival Southern Connecticut in its opener, 68-62, improving to 3-0 vs. SCSU this season (SMC also won three vs. the Owls in 2014-15). In a taffy-pull that saw 18 lead changes and no separation greater than seven points, the Purple Knights eventually took control with a crucial, late 11-1 spurt that flipped a 58-55 deficit into a 66-59 upper hand with 59 seconds remaining. Yepdo (21 points, 3-4 from 3), Crews (16 points, six rebounds in a reserve role) and Marold (nine points, 4-5 FG, 12 rebounds, three huge blocked shots) made their presences felt for the winners, who were playing their first NCAA Tournament game in 23 years, when their three seniors were all less than a year old and the rest of the team unborn. Josh McGettigan produced 21 points and six rebounds in his last collegiate game, while Cherif Diarra amassed 14 points and 13 rebounds in a losing cause.
Daemen earned its first tourney win since emerging from the 2021 regional by defeating Jefferson, 74-66, snapping the Rams’ 11-game win streak and establishing an NCAA-era high-water mark with 25 wins. The story in this one was MacDonald’s suffocating defense on two-time CACC Player of the Year and All-American Erik Timko, who was rarely open and who scored a season-worst seven points in 40 minutes of court time (the last three coming on a 3-pointer with five seconds to go), and only the fourth time in his career he failed to score in double figures. Fasoyiro sported 16 of his 19 points (7-11 FG, 3-5 from long distance) prior to halftime as the Wildcats assembled a 39-26 lead shortly after the break. The Rams – who were participating in their region-high 38th NCAA Tournament (second-most in D2 history behind Kentucky Wesleyan’s 41) – orchestrated a 22-9 run to pull even at 48-48, but Daemen countered with seven straight, the last four by freshman Zach Philipkoski, to stabilize the ship. Jefferson – which saw Antonin Kemkeng close out his career with a personal-best 29 points (12-14 FG) – was within 67-63 inside of the final three minutes but failed to capitalize on successive possessions, and the Wildcats closed it out by going 7-8 at the foul line. Justin Hemphill generated 17 points (7-11 FG) in 18 bench minutes, while Philipkoski chimed in with 14 points on perfect shooting (5-5 FG, 2-2 from 3, 2-2 FT). Both teams shot the rock well (DU 51%, JU 52%) as the Rams finished the season second in the nation with a 51.4% field-goal mark.
Next Up…
Southern New Hampshire will attempt to end the longest regional losing streak at the Elite-8 as no East representative has won the national championship since UMass-Lowell (then-University of Lowell) hoisted the trophy in 1988. The South-Central Region owns the second-longest drought as Northeastern State took the prize in 2003. The last time one of our teams even played in the championship game was Bryant in 2005 (a loss to Virginia Union). The last team from our region to win a single game at the national quarterfinals was St. Anselm, which defeated Nova Southeastern in 2019 before falling to eventual champion Northwest Missouri State in the semis. So here’s hoping that the other Manchester, NH team can equal the feat and stun the doubters.
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The next Around the Rim comes your way next week from Evansville after the Penmen’s run ends (hopefully in a national championship). I will also post a special Rim Shots column from the Elite-8 with several observations and pointed opinions. If you like what we do, please consider a Patreon subscription. That exclusive content will only be accessible to subscribers. It’s a way to cover our website costs so we can continue covering the region with the same commitment to excellence. The link is: www.patreon.com/D2easthoops. You can also email me with any questions or comments at chrisgranozio@gmail.com. Happy Hooping to All!