The road to the championship starts now!

C.D. DeSalvo:
Good afternoon and welcome to Municipal Auditorium in the heart of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. I’m C.D. DeSalvo and joining me today is Aaron Wondra, Stephen McTeir, and Garrett Sager. We’ll be following you all weekend … We’ll be with you all weekend to help you with the MIAA Tournament and keep you updated on all that is going on. MIAA Tournament technically started on Monday guys with games at the home sites. We’ll get right into it. #8 seed Washburn against #9 seed Fort Hays State. Washburn was just too much for the Tigers, 20 points off turnovers, 21 bench points for Washburn. Just proved to be too much. Alex North led the way with 18 points, had 9 rebounds and 2 steals. Kyle Wiggins also hard to defend. He had 13 points and 6 rebounds. Washburn gets the victory and they move on to play Northwest Missouri today at noon.

Stephen McTeir:
In the 5:12 game, Pittsburgh State actually came in as the #3 seed on Saturday in their final regular season game. Took a loss to the Ichabods of Washburn. Moved down to the #5 seed. Hosted Northeastern State on Monday night, 69-54 victory for Pittsburgh State. It was a balanced attack. It was an efficient attack. Devon Branch, Trey Starks led the way, co-shooting they combined 8 for 11 from the field. Four guys in double figures for the Gorillas. They will take on the #4 seed Lindenwood at 2:15 here this afternoon.

Garrett Sager:
The 6:11 game really wasn’t a contest at all. Nebraska-Kearney really took care of Southwest Baptist there in Kearney. They had five in double figures. They won 90-74. MIAA Player of the Year, Conner Beranek had 26 points, 9 rebounds, and Trey Lansman backed him up with 16 points and 8 rebounds. Those two just kind of led the way, got them back to Kansas City. They’ll face the #3 seed Missouri Southern here today in the first game of the afternoon session. Missouri Southern of course one of those teams that made it in with a bye.

Aaron Wondra:
The last game that was played was the #7 Central Oklahoma against the #10 Missouri Western. That was a really, really intense game. Central Oklahoma won 73-72 with the last bucket made with 11 seconds. It was a real quick lay-up. The team’s being led by Seth Heckart and Phillip Brown. They both had 19 points and Brown had a double-double with 10 rebounds as well. With that game, that takes them against the #2 Central Missouri and that’s the last game of the day. We’re going to be seeing a lot of them here in the Tournament I have a feeling.

C.D. DeSalvo:
Well there’s your review of the first round of the MIAA Tournament. Today at noon will be Northwest Missouri against Washburn, the #1 versus the #8. At 2:15, following that game, it will be Pitt State versus Lindenwood, Lindenwood the #4 seed, Pitt the #5. After an intermission, it’ll be Central Oklahoma and Central Missouri at 6 p.m. Central Missouri the #2 seed, Central Oklahoma the #7 seed. At 8:15 p.m. it’ll be #3 seed Missouri Southern against #6 seed Nebraska-Kearney.

That’s going to do it for us at the desk. Enjoy the games.

TOURNAMENT UPDATES:

FHSU vs NSU