Joplin, MO - The Crown College Polars Men's Basketball Team faced off with the Ozark Christian College Ambassadors on Wednesday night in the first round of the NCCAA National Tournament coming out on top by a score of 78-73.

Crown started the game with three consecutive triples from the likes of Cade Carroll and Alec Testerman. Nearing the halfway point of the first half Crown stretched their early lead to ten with the score settled at 18-8. Crown would extend the lead to thirteen with just 6:27 remaining in the first half after back to back three's from Micah Ladd. The Ambassadors would start to inch back into the game cutting Crown's lead to just four multiple times. The first half score would settle at 36-29 in Crown's favor. 

The second half looked much different than the first. The Polars dominated the first half controlling the lead of the game for the entire half. An early second half run by the Polars put them out in front by ten points just 5 minutes in. Ozark Christian would answer back slowly cutting into the Crown lead, eventually tying the game up at 54-54 with 9:28 to play. Both teams would trade buckets looking to try to gain the advantage but that wouldn't come until after seven lead changes. The Polars retook control of the game with just about 35 seconds to play as Crown's Jacob Masek would drive the lane and finish. An ensuing steal gave the Polars men the lead right back adn Crown held on to win 78-73.

Cade Carroll led the scoring for Crown with 30 total points with 13 of them coming from the charity stripe. Carroll also added 9 rebounds to his spectacular performance. Jacob Masek would follow in points with 15 of his own adn totaled a whopping 11 rebounds for another double-double. Micah Ladd also scored double digits adding 11 points while also adding 5 assists.

Crown shot 33.33% as a team going 24-72 from the field and 29.3% from three point range going 12-41. The Polars dominated the rebounds grabbing ten more than the Ambassadors.

The Polars will return to action in the NCCAA National Championship tournament as they will move to 19-10 on the season and take on the Manhattan Christian College Thunder in the semifinal Friday, March 10th at 4pm.