By Eric Montgomery | NAIA Media Services

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Box Score) De’Quentin Greer netted a game-high 24 points, 14 coming in the second half, to lead Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) over No. 15-seed Columbia (Mo.), 74-68, Thursday afternoon in the 2015 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship in Municipal Auditorium. Appearing in their second national championship, the Saints advance to the second round to take on No. 2 Talladega (Ala.) on Friday, March 20 at 2:15 p.m. CDT.

With the score tied at 39-all in the second half, Our Lady of the Lake went on a game-changing 18-5 run to take control. Greer had seven points during that stretch.

“This group is special,” said OLLU Head Coach Ryan Wall. “They played together. Everyone contributed to this win. We are not done yet. Columbia is a great organization and a tough team.

“Everybody we play is a lot bigger than us, my tallest guy is 6-5. We always talk about who has a bigger heart, who wants it harder and we hold our hat to that.”

The first half was a back-and-forth battle as Columbia held the largest lead of five points. There were four lead changes and the game was tied five times. Columbia shot well – 51.9% -- to hold a slight 32-31 lead at the break.

The second half saw the Our Lady of the Lake defense step up. The Saints limited Columbia to just two fields and a pair of free throws in the first five minutes of the half. That helped ignite an offensive scoring burst as the Saints took a 57-44 advantage at the 9:26 mark.

The Cougars’ Jackson Dubinski hit a 3-pointer with 32-seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 73-68, but Our Lady of the Lake held on and will advance to its second-straight round of 16.

Our Lady of the Lake held a sizable scoring advantage from the free throw line (+10) with the Saints connecting on 21-of-35 (.571) and Columbia going 11-of-16 (.688).

Both teams shot the exact same percentage (43.6) for the game.

Greer went 8-of-15 overall and 8-of-10 from the foul line to pour in 24 points. He added six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Daniel Skinner posted 15 points and Darion Brown had 14.

Zach Rockers and Tanner Sutton finished with a team-high 12 points in the loss. Travis Vogt chipped in 11.

Columbia, an automatic qualifier out of the American Midwest Conference, wraps up its season with a 26-7 record.

Game Notes:
Our Lady of the Lake – The Saints picked up the second championship win in program history, defeating Baker (Kan.) in 2012, 103-88...De'Quentin Greer has scored in double-figures in 12 of his last 13 games and a total of 21 times this season...The Saints improve to 4-1 when trailing at halftime this season...Gave the state of Texas its only first round win in the championship tournament (1-3)...The Saints extended the streak of knocking off the No. 15 seed in the first round to three-straight tournaments...Entered the game leading the NAIA in steals per game (14.2) and finished the game with 13...The Saints finished with 11 total assists, its second lowest total of the season.

Columbia – Making their 19th appearance at the NAIA National Championship… The Cougars have made five-consecutive trips to the postseason and senior Tanner Sutton has led his team to four of those (8 championship games)… Overall tournament record of 11-19, while going 7-12 in first round games… Columbia finished the regular season 26-6, and finished with an 18-4 record in the American Midwest Conference where they placed second behind championship qualifier Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.)… Zach Rockers leads the team in scoring averaging 12.7 points per game, Rockers also leads the team in rebounds with 5.6 boards a game but was held to just one rebound… The Cougars came in ranked first nationally in scoring defense per game (56.13 ppg) and first in defensive field goal percentage (0.37)… Columbia also ranks in the top five in scoring margin, turnover margin, and assist/turnover ratio… Ranked as high as ninth during the regular season weekly rankings… Columbia College is winless this year when allowing opponents to score 65.0 points or more (0-7)… Three players reached double figures for the Cougars, and nine total players contributed to the scoring.