Rio men to face Knights in NAIA tourney opener

Rio Grande Sports Information
     KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The University of Rio Grande will face Marian (Ind.) University in the opening round of the NAIA Men's Basketball Championship presented by Ballogy on Tuesday, March 7, as part of the Oskaloosa Bracket hosted by William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
     The pairings for the opening round of the 64-team tournament were announced by the NAIA national office on Thursday night.
     The RedStorm (24-6), the No. 2 seed in the four-team bracket and the No. 8 seed in the tourney's Cramer Quadrant, advanced to the tournament as the River States Conference regular season champion.
     Third-year head coach Ryan Arrowood's squad is coming off of a 71-68 loss to eventual RSC Tournament champion Indiana University Southeast in last Saturday's semifinals.
     Tuesday's game is scheduled for a 5 p.m. EST start at Penn Gymnasium, while pod host William Penn - the top seed in both the bracket and the quadrant - will take on St. Xavier (Ill.) in the 8 p.m. EST nightcap.
     Tuesday's winners will meet in the bracket title game on Wednesday, March 8, at 8 p.m. EST, with the survivor becoming one of the 16 teams advancing to the tournament's final site — Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. — for play which begins on March 13 and concludes with the NAIA national championship game on March 18.
     Rio Grande, which won 23 of its last 26 games after starting the season at 1-3, features a lineup that includes three double-digit scorers.
     Senior forward Shiloah Blevins (South Webster, OH) tops the trio at 15.6 points per game and also averages a team-high 6.2 rebounds per contest. He was named to the All-RSC First Team for the third time in his career earlier this week.
     Junior guard Miki Tadic (Hilversum, The Netherlands) checks in at 13.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and a team-best 2.9 assists per game. He was also an All-RSC First Team selection.
     Freshman guard Kaden Warner (Cincinnati, OH) rounds out the trio at 13.4 points, 2.5 assists and a team-high 1.5 steals per game.
     Rio Grande ranks ninth nationally in three-point goals made per game (10.2) and 14th in three-point percentage (38.8%), while also cracking the NAIA top 20 by ranking 14th in opponents' three-point percentage (29.7%) and 19th in points allowed per game (65.6).
     Marian University enters the national tournament at 21-9 after suffering a 96-90 overtime loss to Grace College in the semifinal round of the Crossroads League tournament.
     One of the 21 wins came against Rio Grande - a 67-63 triumph on Dec. 30, 2022 at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Head coach Scott Heady's club has a quartet of double-digit scorers and is led by 6-foot-8 fifth-year senior forward Taeshon Cherry at 18.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.
     Senior guard Christian Harvey (6-1) averages 13.6 points and a team-best 3.7 assists per outing, while fifth-year senior guard Hayden Langkabel (6-1) and sophomore guard Brody Whitaker (6-3) are scoring at an 11.7 ppg and 10.7 ppg clip, respectively.
     The Knights' roster also includes fifth-year senior guard/forward Luke Gohmann (6-6), who averages 7.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
     Marian ranks seventh nationally in free throw percentage at 76.8 percent and is fourth nationally at just 9.5 turnovers per game.
     William Penn was tied with Georgetown (Ky.) for eighth place in the final NAIA coaches' Top 25 poll of the season and is the only team in the four-team pod which is ranked.
     The Statesmen (28-3) defeated Peru State, 95-82, for their fourth straight Heart of America Athletic Conference championship.
     Sophomore guard Malik Edwards (6-2) is the team's leading scorer at 17.0 points per game, while junior guard Chanze Cruesoe (6-1) averages 12.9 points, 5.6 assists and 5.5 assists per game.
     Graduate senior forward Eddie Daley (6-11) adds a team-high 9.4 rebounds per game to his 11.1 ppg scoring average, while sophomore forward Muneer Newton (6-5) and senior guard James Pennington (6-3) check in at 10.9 and 10.5 ppg, respectively.
     WPU ranks among the national leaders in a number of categories, including a No. 2 ranking in points per game (91.0) and leading the country at 48.7 rebounds per game.
     Rounding out the pod is St. Xavier (24-7), which most recently suffered a 67-65 loss to Indiana University South Bend in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Championship.
     The Cougars also sport a quartet of players with double-digit scoring averages and are led by senior guard Jaeden King (6-6) at 20.5 points per game.
     The group also includes junior guard Cedric Johnson (6-4) at 14.1 ppg, senior forward Jack Halverson (6-8) at 13.8 ppg and junior forward Kevin Bishop (6-6) at 12.9 ppg. Halverson and Bishop both shoot better than 60 percent from the floor overall, while Bishop and Johnson both average a team-high 6.2 rebounds per game.
     Johnson and senior guard TJ Babikir (6-1) lead SXU at 3.1 assists per game, while Babikir also averages 1.8 steals per game.