ALEXANDRIA, La. – Coming into the NAIA National Basketball tournament opening round riding the high of an AMC regular season and tournament championship, MBU men's basketball played well above its 12th-seeded billing, but ultimately succumbed 83-77 to a Louisiana State University Shreveport (LSUS) side that escaped Rapides Parish Coliseum with the first-round victory in a slugfest.
The Spartans hung tough the whole game and gave the 5th-seeded Pilots all they could handle. The MBU effort was marred by foul trouble midway through the second half and spelled the undoing as graduate seniors
John Yaeger and
River Reed missed significant time over the final 20 minutes. Reed still had all 10 of his points after the break to impact the game despite battling fouls, and Yaeger made his presence known off the glass as the game's leading rebounder. The Lutheran South High product and back-to-back All-AMC first teamer, playing in what would be his final game for Mobap to cap a storied career, procured a seventh double-double of the season with his 17 points and 12 boards. Guard
Jadis White did his best John Stockton-impression and recorded a double-double of his own with 12 points and 12 assists.
Senior guard
Brendon Hardy led all Spartan scorers with 18 points. Hardy had two 3-pointers for MBU, but the lone AMC postseason representative struggled from beyond the arc compared to LSUS, with the Spartans shooting 5-of-18 (27.8%) compared to the Pilots scoring 9-of-22 (40.9%). LSUS guard Leondre Washington led all scorers with 30.
In the early going, a pair of Yaeger buckets in the paint and seven points from Hardy had Mobap up 10 within the first five minutes. The rest of the half seesawed back and forth but the Spartans kept the lead until the final shot of the first frame. The Pilots took a narrow 39-38 lead to the locker room, but things were far from over.
MBU quickly regained the lead with a seven-point run following the intermission, but it would again be hotly contested for both sides until the final whistle. The Spartan fouls stacked up quickly in the second half, and the LSUS 81.5% clip at the free throw line from 27 shots did not help MBU's chances. Mobap tied things up at 77 with under a minute on a White layup that seemed to hang on the rim for an eternity, but an answer in the form of a wild reverse up-and-under from Washington for LSUS spelled the end of the Spartans magical postseason ride after a missed three and the Pilots sunk all four of their foul line trips.
The loss knocks Missouri Baptist out of the postseason and is a bitter end to an historic season for the men's team.
Preston Ingram's squad delivered a postseason conference tournament crown for the first time in 17 years and the most wins since the 2018-19 season, the last Spartan NAIA berth. The team also held the longest winning streak in the nation at one point, with its 14 straight victories and 14-0 start to conference play serving as the high-water mark of the regular season.
Mobap ends the 2021-22 season 26-6. LSUS (24-7) advances to face the 4-seed University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma.
