Story by Eric Montgomery, NAIA Media Coordinator

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Box Score) No. 3-seeded Pikeville (Ky.) opened up the second day of the 2017 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship with a 79-62 victory over No. 6-seeded Grand View (Iowa) in the Naismith  Bracket, Thursday morning at Municipal Auditorium. The Bears will play the winner of No. 2-seeded Columbia (Mo.) and No. 7-seeded Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) in a second round game on Friday, March 17 at 5:45 p.m. CST

Clint Nwosuh tallied 22 points, five rebounds and three assists to lead the way for Pikeville (27-7), connecting on 4 of 7 three-point shots. Darrion Leslie recorded 15 points, 11 rebounds and three assists, Trey Rakes added 11 points and three assists, while Jordan Perry tossed in 10 points.

“I thought our defense today was really good, really solid,” said Pikeville head coach Kelly Wells. I’m really proud of this team. They all came out and did the things they needed to do. I thought everybody contributed well for us, and I’m really proud of our guys down the stretch.”

Trailing by four in the early stages, Grand View grabbed its biggest lead thanks to an 11-0 run for a 20-13 lead. Three-point shots by Kerry Green and Nate Washington highlighted the offensive output, while the defense held the Bears without a field goal for over six minutes.

Nwosuh ended the drought with a trey of his own, sparking a 14-0 response from Pikeville that flipped the seven-point cushion in favor of the Bears. Grand View was limited to one field goal in the final 3:26 as Pikeville took an 11-point lead into intermission.

The Pikeville advantage was stretched to 14 early on in the second half on back-to-back field goals by Perry, but Grand View chipped away and closed to within seven on a three-pointer by Green. That was as close as the Vikings would get, however, as the Bears scored the next five points and led by double digits the rest of the way.

After shooting 45.7 percent (16 of 35) in the first half, Pikeville was 15 of 27 (.556) in the second half that included a 5 of 10 clip from beyond the arc. Pikeville also owned a 41-35 edge on the glass and 15-11 advantage in turnovers while holding Grand View to 36.1 percent shooting for the game.

“I'm really proud of our effort today, but obviously disappointed in the outcome,” said Grand View head coach Denis Schaefer. “We got matched up with a really good team today, but we couldn't get into our running out game, which got us frustrated.  We got out to a lead in the first half, but they answered with a run and it caused us a few issues.  Our guys competed hard and they were thrilled to be here."

Green led the way for Grand View with 17 points, while Chase Mullen finished with 14 points. Alex Welsch chipped in with 10 points, five rebounds and four blocked shots.

Grand View finished its season with a record of 20-11.

Game Notes:

Pikeville

Upike is appearing in its 11^th national championship tournament and its fifth in-a-row… Bears made their first appearance in 1959 and again in 1976… They would not appear again until 2001 to begin nine appearances in the 2000s… The Bears improve to 5-6 in first-round games… The Pikeville roster is represented by 11 states – only Kentucky and Louisiana have more than one with two apiece… Pikeville is 19-0 when leading at halftime this year… Junior Darrion Leslie needed 31 points entering the tournament to reach the 500-point plateau in his first year at Pikeville… In the first half, Pikeville trailed 20-13 with 9:49 to play… Pikeville led 37-26 at halftime holding the Vikings to six points in the final 9:49.

Grand View

This is the Vikings' first-ever appearance in the championship...Grand View received an automatic bid as the regular-season runner-up in the Heart of America Athletic Conference...The Vikings are one of two teams (along with Mount Mercy) from the Heart of America Athletic Conference making their debut this year...With their loss, the Vikings closed their season with three-straight losses...The Vikings are now 4-4 against teams in the 2017 championship...After shooting 46.8 percent from the field in its first 30 games, Grand View only made 22 of 61 shots (36.1 percent) in its loss Thursday...The Vikings came into Thursday's game averaging 85.8 points per contest and scored 23 points below their season average...

Overall Championship Notes

Teams are now 6-3 when leading at half during the 2017 championships… Higher-seeded teams are now 8-1 in the first nine games (No. 6 Langston def. No. 3 Biola as the only upset)... The Mid-South Conference is currently 3-0 in the tournament… Through nine games, there have been four games decided by 10-or-more points… There have been no overtime games so far – previously, three of the last four events had at least one game go into extra frames on Day 1.