Hastings, NE – The Hastings College men’s basketball team returns to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time since 2010 and will face off against Mid-America Christian Friday night at 8 pm inside the Garvey Center down in Wichita, KS.
The Broncos earned one of the two automatic berths from the Great Plains Athletic Conference by winning its first ever GPAC Tournament Championship by defeating Morningside 77-61. Hastings finished the season with a 23-8 record and was 15-5 in conference play.
This will be the 15th time the Broncos are headed to the dance and the first under second year head coach Todd Raridon.
Hastings is led by GPAC Player of the Year Reggie Thomas as he is averaging 24.5 points per game which is the best in the conference and ranks him third in the country. Thomas also leads the team in rebounding (7.5), assists (4.5) and steals (1.6). Thomas eclipsed 1,000 career points this season and is the single season record holder for points with 760.
Tyrique McMurrin is second on the team in scoring averaging 11.7 points per game as he earned 2nd team All-Conference honors. McMurrin is also averaging nearly six rebounds per game. Danilo Matovic is averaging 9.4 points per game and Grady Corrigan is averaging 8.2 points per game as they both garnered honorable mention All-Conference honors. Matovic finished third in the conference by shooting 60.6 percent from the floor. Quinn Johnson is the spark off the bench as he averages 8.7 points per game.
Also look for Anthony Thompson (4.9 ppg), Nolan Sughroue (3.9ppg) and Yohan-Steve Yebga (2.2ppg) to get some key minutes in this game.
The Evangels spread the wealth on the offensive side as Seth Hurd leads the team in scoring as he averages 12.4 ppg. Mikel Henderson averages 11.3 ppg. And Eddie Smith averages 10.6 ppg.
The teams are very similar as both play a very aggressive defensive scheme as MACU gives up 67.7 points per game while the Broncos give up 70.5 points per game. The teams are similar offensively as HC scores at a rate of 76.5 ppg. while MACU scores at a clip of 75.5 ppg.
The Broncos and Evangels tipoff the first round of the NAIA Tournament on Friday Mar. 15 at 8:00 pm inside the Garvey Center.
