GLASSBORO, New Jersey — The Cal Lutheran men's basketball team has qualified for the NCAA Division III National Championships and heads to Glassboro, N.J., to play in a pod with Babson, Rowan, and Utica.
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Babson (19-8) and Utica (22-4) will play in the first game on Friday at 2 p.m. PST. Cal Lutheran (13-13) and Rowan (22-5) are the second game, slated for 4:30. The two winners will play on Saturday at 4:30 PST with the right to go to the Sweet 16.
The pod is hosted by Rowan University. Tickets will be sold beginning at 4 p.m. EST on Friday in the Esby Gym lobby. Prices are $15 for adults and $10 for senior citizens, students, children and veterans. Cash only. Once the gym capacity is reached, tickets sales will end. Cal Lutheran is allotted 150 tickets.
Cal Lutheran won its first SCIAC Tournament championship and earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Kingsmen are in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000-01.
In his fourth season as head coach, Russell White has turned the program around. Going 4-21 in 2019-20, the Kingsmen won 17 games a year ago and made the SCIAC Tournament for the first time since 2016-17. Cal Lutheran now has back-to-back SCIAC Tournament appearances and is heading to the NCAA Tournament.
The Kingsmen advanced to the NCAA Championships by upsetting No. 1 Pomona-Pitrzer, 79-73 in the semifinals and No. 3 Redlands, 69-68, in the championship game. Junior Tommy Griffitts had a putback with 2.4 seconds remaining to secure his squad the win. Junior Devon Lewis scored 29 points in the championship and was named the Most Outstanding Player.
The Kingsmen ranked 40th in the nation for turnover margin with 3.5. They are 57th in turnovers per game with 11.7 and 88th in assist-to-turnover ratio with 1.15. Griffitts is 22nd with a field-goal percentage of 60.6 and Lewis is 87th with 50 steals. Three Kingsmen average double-digts with Lewis having 13.3, Griffitts with 12.7, and Brock Susko with 10.5. Desi Burrage is next with 9.2, Jake Martin is at 7.3 and Ze'ev Remer and Riley O'Connor add 6.5 and 6.2, respectively.
Lewis averages 2.9 assists per game, Burrage has 2.1 and Susko is at 2.0. Griffitts pulls down 6.5 rebounds and Susko is next with 5.4. Lewis records 1.9 steals per game and Susko and Burrage have 1.4 and 1.3, respectively.
Something will have to give as Rowan averages 92.7 points per game while Cal Lutheran only allows 72. A 20-point swing will be put to the test. The Profs have four double-digit scorers with Ja'Zere Noel averaging 19.7. He also averages 7.8 rebounds, Connor Dickson has 2.3 assists, and Connor Dickerson has 2.2 steals.
This is the first-ever matchup between the teams.
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