Story by NAIA Office

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Box score) No. 1 seed Georgetown (Ky.) held off No. 4 seed Arizona Christian, 80-78, in the second round of the 2016 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship. The Tigers will meet the winner of No. 2-seeded Columbia (Mo.) and No. 3-seeded William Penn (Iowa) on Saturday, March 19 at 2:00 p.m. CDT.

Leading since the 15:54 mark of the first half, Georgetown was forced to hold its breath as Arizona Christian had a pair of short-range field goal attempts by Sharif Watson roll off the rim in the final 20 seconds of play. Bobby Gray hit two free throws for the Firestorm with 32 seconds remaining, followed by the Tigers’ Deondre McWhorter committing an offensive foul.

“I really don’t know right now,” said Georgetown head coach Chris Briggs. “The ball went one way, back the other and back the other, the horn sounded and we were up. I’ll take it.”

Following the first miss by Watson, Bobby Gray got the ball back for Arizona Christian with a steal and picked out Watson in the frontcourt. However, his second attempt also failed to slide through the hoop, and Georgetown’s Darion Burns secured the rebound to preserve the victory.

Georgetown (30-3) trailed for just 50 seconds early on before a three-pointer from Noah Cottrill ignited a 20-4 stretch over the next 8:23 to take a 26-11 lead. Arizona Christian was able to work its way back under double digits with just over a minute until halftime, but the Tigers finished the half with six-straight points to take a 13-point lead into intermission.

The Georgetown advantage hovered around a dozen points for most of the second half, but Arizona Christian made a late surge to set up the dramatic finish. Three free throws followed by field goals from Brandon Newman and two buckets by Chris Sterling erased a 10-point deficit down to two with 2:08 left. The Tigers still led by four with 37 seconds to play before Gray hit two more free throws with 32 seconds left.

“I could not be more proud of our group of guys and how they came back,” said Arizona Christian head coach Jeff Rutter. “Georgetown is the best team in the country for a reason and they have probably two of the best players in the country. They made us play poorly to start. We just lost to a little better team who made a few more plays than we did.”

McWhorter scored a game-high 26 points to go along with 13 rebounds and three blocked shots for Georgetown, while Cottrill finished with 22 points, four assists and three rebounds. The duo combined to hit 17 of 20 free throws, while McWhorter made 10 of 15 field goal attempts.

Newman and Sterling each had 22 points for Arizona Christian while combining for 10 rebounds. Gray finished with 15 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals, while Helms added 10 points and three rebounds.

Arizona Christian finishes its season with a 23-9 record.

Game notes:
Georgetown – Making its 24th appearance overall in the second round… Didn’t advance to the second round in 2015, losing to Arizona Christian by two points, 84-82, in the first round… Cottrill is second in the NAIA in 3-point field goal percentage (.500) … The Tigers are ranked No. 1 in the NAIA in blocks per game (5.4), total blocks (174) and scoring offense per game (95.8)…

Arizona Christian – ACU: Making second appearance in second round… Lost to Cal State San Marcos, 61-59, in 2015… Advanced to second round of 2016 championship after beating No. 5 William Carey (Miss.), 84-77… Junior Chris Sterling recorded his 12th game with 20 or more-points on the season.