KOKOMO, Ind. – For the second time in three years, the IU Southeast men's basketball team has secured a berth in the NAIA National Tournament. An 81-78 upset victory over IU Kokomo gave the Grenadiers the second automatic bid from the River States Conference.
IU Kokomo led 18-15 halfway through the first half. IU Kokomo extended their advantage to double digits at 35-25, but IU Southeast closed the half on an 8-0 run to go into halftime only trailing by two at 35-33.
IU Southeast opened the second half with six straight points to take a 39-35 advantage. IU Southeast's lead hit double digits at 48-38 following a
Lane Lauderbaugh three. A
Xavier Price three gave IU Southeast a 56-42 lead.
The Grenadiers led by double digits for five minutes of game time, but IU Kokomo made a late run. The Cougars used an 8-0 run to cut the Grenadier lead to four at 71-67 with 2:41 left.
IU Southeast used six straight points by
Trent Hinkle to extend their lead back to 10 at 77-67 with 52 seconds remaining. Back-to-back IU Kokomo threes made it 77-73 with 17 seconds left.
IU Kokomo was able to cut the Grenadier lead to three, but
Xavier Price sank a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining to put the game away. IU Southeast pulled off another upset, an 81-78 win over IU Kokomo.
"Another tough team win on the road," IU Southeast head coach
Wiley Brown said. "We had three players score 20 or more. That's big for us. Richard played big in the paint on the defensive end. We knew Kokomo would try to score a lot of points in the paint, but it's hard to score over big Rich. Richard does a lot of things you don't see on the stat sheet. So proud of this team. It's March Madness baby! Back to the lab!"
IU Southeast was led by the trio of
Xavier Price,
Trent Hinkle, and
Lane Lauderbaugh. Price has 22 points and eight rebounds, Hinkle had 21 points and five assists, and Lauderbaugh had 21 points and seven rebounds.
Richard Lang had six points, seven rebounds, and two blocks.
IU Southeast moves on to play top-seeded Saint Mary-of-the-Woods on Tuesday night for the RSC Tournament Championship. Both teams have already clinched berths in the NAIA National Tournament.
