Bronchos fall to Bearcats in MIAA Championship, 61-53

Cal Haydon Sports Reporter

Central Oklahoma men’s basketball fell short in the championship game of the MIAA Conference Tournament on Sunday afternoon in Kansas City, MO. UCO lost 6153 to the No. 1 seed and defending national champions, Northwest Missouri State Bearcats in the Bronchos first appearance ever in the MIAA postseason championship game since joining the conference in 2012.

The championship game was a heated and close battle that included 11 lead changes throughout the game. UCO trailed by eight at the half but opened up the second half with a 7-0 run to cut the lead down to just one. The Bronchos tied the game 53-53 with 3:04 to play in the game. But an 8-0 run including six free-throws by Northwest Missouri followed to end the game and give the Bearcats their second consecutive MIAA Postseason Championship.

Central opened up tournament play on Thursday afternoon in which they defeated No. 7 seed Missouri Southern State University in the quarterfinals, 76-60.

On Saturday, UCO faced

No. 3 seed Fort Hays State Tigers in the semifinals, who beat No. 6 seed Rogers State in their first round matchup. The Bronchos outlasted the Tigers

55-51 in a closely contested game which ultimately advanced them to the school’s first MIAA championship game.

“I’m really proud of this group,” said UCO head men’s basketball coach Bob Hoffman. “We did some really amazing things throughout this week that has never been done in program history and we should be really proud of that.”

UCO sophomore Jaden

Wells and senior Camryn Givens both earned All-Tournament Team awards for their outstanding play throughout the week. Wells averaged 17.4 ppg and Givens averaged 14.4 points per game, which led the

Bronchos in scoring.

“This one hurts,” said Wells after the loss. “We definitely played good enough to win this whole tournament, but unfortunately we just couldn’t get a bucket to fall late.”

Central Oklahoma will now wait for this week’s NCAA Division II Selection Show to determine where and who the Bronchos will face in the first round of the NCAA

Division II National Tournament which will begin on Saturday.

“Even though this loss stings, we are going to just have to move on and leave this championship game in the rear-view mirror,” said Hoffman. “From the start of the season our main goal was to make a run for the national championship and we still have the opportunity to be able to do that.”