Ferris State basketball wins Division II national championship-Mar
24, 2018
Tested like it rarely has been all season, the Ferris State
men's basketball team won the Division II national championship,
71-69, over Northern State (S.D.) in Sioux Falls, S.D., on
Saturday afternoon. It marks the first national championship in
any sport for Ferris State, which finished 38-1, and with 26
consecutive wins. "I've been dreaming about this kind of stuff
since I was young," Ferris State head coachAndy Bronkema(6'5''-F)
told CBS moments following the game, confetti still falling.
Ferris State hadn't trailed in either of its Elite Eight of
Final Four victories, but was down early to the crowd favorite,
Northern State, before rallying to take a slim lead at halftime,
39-37. The second half was more of the same, with neither team
ever leading by more than three points. And the finish was just
as frantic. After senior centerZach Hankins(6'10''-C)'
defense stifled a shot by Northern State'sDJ Pollard(6'4''-G)
with 10 seconds remaining, junior wingMarkese Mayfield(6'5''-F)
grabbed the rebound, was fouled and went to the line. He made
the first, but refs waved it off because his foot was on the
line. He then composed himself, made the second and got back on
defense. Northern State, opting not to call a timeout, raced
down the court andDarin Peterka(6'4''-G)
got off one last deep - albeit, open - 3 for the win, but it
came up well short, and the celebration was on for the hundreds
of Ferris State students and officials who made the 12-hour
drive from Big Rapids to the Sanford Pentagon. "One shot,"
Bronkema said. "One shot that looked good from my angle. It was
right on track, but it was short, we came up with the rebound
and we won it." Northern State had three turnovers and no points
in the final 2 minutes, 55 seconds after taking a 69-66 lead. A
pair of free throws tightened things, and then Hankins, the
6-foot-10, 255-pound Division II Midwest Region player of the
year from Charlevoix, made a layup with 1:31 left for a 70-69
lead. Then, with 1:07 left, senior wingNoah King(6'4''-F)
out of U-D Jesuit picked up a steal and had a clean, fastbreak
look at a layup, but he missed - and officials said the ball
went out of bounds off him. A review reversed that and Ferris
State kept it. Mayfield missed a 3, though, allowing Northern
State potentially the final shot, with just a couple seconds
difference between the shot and game clocks. That shot, byDJ Pollard,
was heavily contested by the much-taller and beefier Hankins,
who finished with team-highs of 19 points and five rebounds.
Afterward, during a postgame interview, Hankins wiped away
tears. "Unbelievable," he said. "We've been working so long for
this." Senior wingPeter Firlik(6'3''-F)
had 12 points and Mayfield 11 for Ferris State, whose 38 wins
tied the Division II record, previously set by Winona State
(Minn.). Ferris State is the second DII national champion out of
the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, joining
Findlay (2009), and the first ever DII national champion from
Michigan. For Northern State (36-3) - whose campus in Aberdeen
is about 200 miles from Sioux Falls -Carter Evans(6'10''-C)
led with 20 points, and Peterka andLogan Doyle(6'8''-F)
each scored 14.
Courtesy of: detroitnews.com
NABC Division II All-America Awards 2018-Mar
25, 2018
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