March 20, 2009

Kansas City, Mo. - Tenth-seeded Texas Wesleyan University exploded for 49 second-half points to overcome a 30-26 halftime deficit and post a 75-69 victory over Lindsey Wilson College (Ky.) in the final game of the first round at the 2009 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at Municipal Auditorium Thursday night.

Leading at the intermission, the Blue Raiders opened the half like they wanted to put the Rams away, going on a 10-1 run and taking a 40-27 lead on a basket by Sam Walton with 17 minutes left in the game. However, Texas Wesleyan answered with a 23-7 run over the next nine minutes to take a 50-47 lead. The game stayed close until the final three minutes when Texas Wesleyan had an 8-0 run to put the game out reach.

Terrell Henry led the Rams with a game-high 23 points while Kennith Gober tallied 21 points. Chris Berry chipped in with 19 markers. Texas Wesleyan shot 40.3 percent for the game, including 47.1 percent in the second 20 minutes. Hector Mukweyi and Ryan Barnes corralled seven rebounds each for the winners.

Walton came off the bench to lead the Lindsey Wilson with 16 points. Quintez Thomas added 11 points and eight rebounds, while Eric McPherson totaled 12 points and eight assists.  

Texas Wesleyan improves to 29-4 overall and advances to play seventh-seeded McKendree University (Ill.) at 9:45 p.m. CDT Friday. McKendree defeated Northwestern Oklahoma State University 83-58 earlier Thursday. Lindsey Wilson concludes its season with a 23-9 overall mark.

GAME NOTES

Since 1959 no fewer than nine seeded teams have failed to advance to the second round of the Division I tournament ... Twelve seeded teams have advanced eight times for the most through to the second rounds while 15 seeded teams have only advanced twice ... All 16 seeded teams have never advanced - note the 1973 results do not list all 16 ranked teams ... The win by Texas Wesleyan marks the sixth straight tournament to have the No. 10 seed advance to the second round ... Texas Wesleyan is 12-8 overall and 6-4 in the opening round ... The loss for Lindsey Wilson moves them to 6-9 overall and 4-5 in the opening round.