Hastings College Men Win GPAC Tournament Title
Hastings, NE – History has been made once again by the Hastings College men’s basketball team as the Broncos won their first ever Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament title by defeating Morningside 77-61 on Tuesday night inside a packed Lynn Farrell Arena.
Head Coach Todd Raridon took this job two years ago as he couldn’t believe it had been over 30 years since the school won a men’s basketball conference regular season conference title. Also dating back to 1993, the team had never won a conference tournament title either.
Well, that all changed this season, winning a share of the GPAC regular season title and then picked up its first ever GPAC tournament title.
The Broncos did it with a tough nosed defensive effort that held the league’s best scoring offense to its lowest offensive output of the season at 61 points. The Mustangs previous low was 72 points and came into the game averaging better than 90 points per game.
Leading 32-28 with 2:34 to go in the first half, the Broncos would grab all the momentum finishing the first half on a 9-0 run as Danilo Matovic starting things with a free throw. The Broncos would take advantage of a second chance opportunity as Tyrique McMurrin finished the layup.
After another stop, Reggie Thomas would get hit on the layup attempt as the ball found its way through the net plus the free throw as HC was now up 38-28 with :12 to go. The Bronco defense would step up again as Anthony Thompson stole the ball from Ely Doble and then Thomas hit a wide open Nolan Sughroue on the win for a 3-poiter as time expired as the estimated crowd of 2,000 went absolutely berserk as HC led 41-28 at the break.
Now the teams played a bit of a cat and mouse game in the second half as the Mustangs tried everything it could to get back into the game, but the Hastings defense was just too tough to beat.
The lead did grow to as many as 18 early in the second half and the Mustangs remember when the Broncos erased that lead in Sioux City to come all the way back to win it. Morningside did get the lead down to 10 switching its defense to an extended 3-2 zone but that would be as close as they would get.
As the lead worked its way back to 13, the team and the crowd were looking for the dagger and it came when Quinn Johnson nailed a 3-pointer with 1:35 to go to put HC up 77-61. The teams basically let time run out as the Bronco student section stormed the court to celebrate the victory.
Thomas did what he always does scoring a game high 32 points as he went 10-for-17 from the floor, 6-for-11 from downtown while pulling down nine boards and dishing out five assists. McMurrin added 15 points as he was 6-of-10 from the floor while pulling down eight boards. Johnson added 10 points off the bench.
Hastings finished the game shooting 55 percent (27-for-49) from the floor while holding the Mustangs to 45.7 percent (21-for-46). HC was 12-for-25 from behind the arc while Morningside was just 6-of-20. The Bronco also dominated the boards 36-to-26.
Hastings improves to 23-8 (15-5) on the year and will now wait till selection show Thursday Mar. 7 to find out which national tournament pod it will play in along with its opponent.
