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Springfield, Mass. - IUP will play for the Division II men's basketball national championship on Saturday after defeating St. Cloud State 76-70 on Thursday night's national semifinals. It marks the first time in school history that the Crimson Hawks will play for the national title and IUP is just the second-ever PSAC school to make to the men's basketball national championship game.
Cheyney, which won the national title in 1978, is the only other PSAC school to have both played for and won a national championship.
Saturday's game will be televised live on CBS at 1:00 p.m. The Crimson Hawks will take on Cal Poly Pomona, which is playing in the national championship game for the second straight year after losing to Findlay in the title game last year.
Below is a game story from Thursday night's game, courtesy of IUP Sports Information.
Springfield, Mass. – IUP moved into the NCAA Division II national championship game for the first time in school history with a 76-70 victory over St. Cloud State in the semifinals Thursday at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass.
The Crimson Hawks (33-2) will play the winner of the second semifinal game between Bentley and Cal Poly Pomona in the championship game Saturday at 1 p.m. on CBS. IUP had previously made it as far as the national semifinals in 1995 and 2002 but fell one step short of making it to the title game. St. Cloud State finished its season with a record of 29-6.
IUP, winners of 15 in a row, led by as many as 15 in the first half and held a 58-49 lead with 7:26 remaining before the Huskies battled back to tie it at 64 with 3:31 left on a put back basket by Brett Putz. But with the shot clock turning to zero on IUP’s next possession, Julian Sanders drilled a 3-pointer to put the Crimson Hawks in front to stay.
Two free throws by Putz made it a one-point game before Thomas Young and Darryl Webb stepped up to clinch the win. Webb, who finished with 12 points and 15 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the NCAA tournament, took a feed from Young and scored while being fouled. He converted the 3-point play to make it 70-66 with 2:16 left.
Josh Ortmann and Matt Schneck both made a pair from the line around a jumper by Young that kept IUP in front 72-70 with 45.4 seconds left. The Crimson Hawks called a timeout to set up a play for Young, and the senior came through with a driving bucket and drew a foul, finishing off the 3-point play that made it a five-point game with 19 seconds left.
Taylor Witt misfired from 3-point distance on the other end two seconds later, and Webb hit a free throw and blocked a 3-point attempt by Ortmann to finally finish off the Huskies. Witt, who scored 43 points in St. Cloud State’s quarterfinal win over Midwestern State, was held to 16 points on 7 of 23 shooting by the Crimson Hawk defense.
Young led IUP with 15 points and IUP put five players in double figures for the second straight game. Ashton Smith had 14 points, Webb put in 12, Kevin Stewart tallied 11 including a pair of key 3-pointers in a first half run and Akida McLain finished with 10. The Crimson Hawks shot 47.4 percent from the field and held the Huskies to 35.8 percent accuracy.
The defensive effort marked the 16th time this season and 12th time in the past 18 games that IUP has held an opponent below 40 percent from the floor. St. Cloud State did manage to become just the fifth team to outrebound the Crimson Hawks, holding a 43-39 edge, after the Crimson Hawks had been +13.3 on the boards in their first four NCAA tournament games.
Webb’s performance continued his climb up the IUP season and career rebounding chart as well as the career scoring list. The junior All-America forward has 363 rebounds this season, just two shy of Lee McCullough’s 1970-71 school record, and with 877 career boards is tied with McCullough for second place in that category, just five away from breaking Garry Lupek’s school mark.
Webb also inched past Sam Scott and into sixth place on the IUP career scoring list with 1,380 points.
Schneck, St. Cloud State’s All-America center, had game highs of 29 points and 17 rebounds. Putz was the third Husky in double figures with 10 points. St. Cloud State committed only five turnovers and IUP had just eight in a well-played game.
IUP trailed only once in the game at 5-4 in the opening two minutes. It was tied at 6 when the Crimson Hawks held the Huskies scoreless for almost seven minutes and built a 19-8 lead. St. Cloud State got back within six at 21-15, but consecutive 3-pointers by Stewart and another long distance bomb by Sanders rebuilt the margin to 30-15 at the 5:12 mark.
Sanders hit a pair of 3-pointers in the game and broke a tie with Paul Burnett for sole possession of fifth place in the IUP career record book with 156.
St. Cloud State cut its deficit to 32-25 by halftime and could have been even closer but Schneck could not convert a pair of layups in the final five seconds. The Huskies continued their run at the outset of the second half and got all the way back to one down twice, including 36-35 on a Schneck basket three minutes into the final 20 minutes.
Stewart, who tied his career scoring high with his 11 points, hit his career-high third 3-pointer of the game and also drained a shot from just inside the arc as part of a 8-0 run that put the Crimson Hawks in front 44-35 with 15:50 left.
Again the Huskies came back, scoring the next six points before Scooter Renkin began a stretch off the bench that restored some control of the game back to IUP. The reserve guard snuck in to grab an offensive rebound, leading to two Webb free throws to end the St. Cloud State run.
Renkin then drove the lane for a layup and made a steal that resulted in two Smith free throws that put the Crimson Hawks ahead 50-41 with 12:16 left. The teams traded points for the next five minutes, and Renkin made two free throws after grabbing another offensive board to leave IUP in front 58-49 at the 7:26 mark.
St. Cloud State again refused to go away, pulling within 63-62 on a 3-pointer by Witt with 4:46 left and then tying it for the final time at 64 on the Putz basket.
IUP has never played either Bentley or Cal Poly Pomona in men’s basketball. Bentley features the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division II Player of the Year in senior guard Jason Westrol while Cal Poly Pomona lost to Findlay in last year’s national championship game.