March 23, 2009

Kansas City, Mo. - Columbia College (Mo.) held off a late charge from MidAmerica Nazarene University (Kan.) to post a 60-56 victory Monday evening in the second semifinal game of the 2009 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship at Municipal Auditorium.

Christian Lewis scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the second half to lead the Cougars to their first-ever trip to the NAIA national championship game. Brett Hoskins added 14 points as Columbia, now 30-7 on the year, will face Rocky Mountain College (Mont.) Tuesday at 8:50 p.m. CDT for the NAIA Division I crown. The Cougars, who had won just three games in 13 previous NAIA tournament appearances, recorded their fourth win of the 2009 event. Monday's win also pushed Columbia's win streak to 10 games.

Tuesday's national championship contest will feature two unseeded teams playing for the NAIA Division I title. This will be the first time that has occurred since the NAIA tournament seeding procedure began in 1957.

"It's great to see a team do well," said Columbia head coach Bob Burchard. "We know who we are. Our championship really occurred when we became a great team. We had 11 guys come together and really turned into a team. I think everyone has really seen the evolution of this."

After Columbia and MidAmerica Nazarene battled to a 28-28 halftime deadlock, the Cougars grabbed the lead early in the second half and never trailed again. Lewis' basket with the shot clock winding down on Columbia's first possession gave the Cougars a 30-28 advantage. They took their largest lead of the contest, 42-34, when Lewis scored at the 9:17 mark. The Pioneers answered with five straight points, the last two coming on a field goal from Ben Swinger, to cut the deficit to 42-39.

The teams continued to trade baskets until a jumper by Lewis stretched the Columbia lead back to 55-48. The Pioneers continued to chip away at the deficit and trimmed the margin to 56-53 on a baseline jumper by Ben Swinger with 34 seconds to go. But the Cougars made four of five free throws late in the contest to preserve their lead. Terrell Turner made the front end of a two-shot foul with 5.5 seconds remaining to ice the win.

In the first half, Columbia led by as many as seven points midway through the period before MidAmerica Nazarene began to rally. An 11-2 surge pushed the Pioneers back in front, 28-26, with just under three minutes remaining in the period. The score stood until the closing seconds of the first half, when Columbia's Taylor Evans was fouled on the team's final possession of the period. Evans sank both free throws, sending the teams into the locker room even at 28-28.

MidAmerica Nazarene played most of the second half without leading scorer Danny Hawkins, who suffered a lower leg injury in the first period. Hawkins scored all nine of his points in the first half. Ben Kiburz paced the Pioneers with 19 points and three blocked shots. He was the only MidAmerica Nazarene University player to reach double figures in the scoring column. Kiburz and Andrew Crotty shared team-high rebounding honors with six. The Pioneers, who were making their NAIA Division I Tournament debut after 13 trips to the NAIA Division II National Championship.

- NAIA -

GAME NOTES -

Both teams started out hot, hitting 70 percent of their shots from the field in the first seven-plus minutes...an 11-2 first-half run gave MidAmerica Nazarene a late lead, but Columbia tied it with two free throws with 1.7 seconds remaining...MidAmerica Nazarene did not score a field goal for the first six minutes of the second half, allowing Columbia to take a six-point advantage ...Columbia has held two straight opponents below 60 points and has held three consecutive opponents at least 22 points below their season average...Columbia's Christian Lewis scored 21 points, one shy of a season-high and two short of his combined total for the first three games of the tournament ... MidAmerica Nazarene's Cal Kiburz scored 16 of his team's 28 second-half points...the two head coaches, Columbia's Bob Burchard and MidAmerica Nazarene's Rocky Lamar, have each won over 500 games in their careers ...Columbia is the first American Midwest Conference program to reach the NAIA championship game and the first Missouri school in the finals since Drury won the title in 1979...Columbia, which previously had never advanced past the second round, improves to 7-13 all-time in NAIA national tournament play, while MidAmerica Nazarene concludes its first Division I tournament with a 3-1 mark.