Minneapolis, MN - The Polars Men's Basketball team battled with the North Central Rams on Saturday in the NCCAA DII National Championship and came out on top 75-72.
The Rams saw their first lead of the game come early on as they held a 6-2 lead after 4 minutes of play. Crown edged out in front and held the slight lead throughout the rest of the first half and after a late run the Polars led at half 35-29. With 6:35 remaining in the second half a three ball from the Rams tied the score up at 57-57.
North Central took the lead for the first time since the first four minutes of play with 4:27 remaining. This game went back and forth with 8 lead changes in the contest. With 1:17 to play
Tyrus Buckner went to the line and knocked down two crucial free throws to tie the score at 68-68.
The dagger came from
Cade Carroll as he drove down the lane and hit a tough basket fading away from the Rams defender to tie the game at 70-70 and drew a foul. Carroll converted on the three point play to take the 71-70 lead with just over 20 seconds to play. A missed shot from North Central was brought down by
Carter Behne who immediately got fouled sending him to the free throw line where he converted on both moving the score to 73-70.
After a quick 2 from the Rams, Carroll went back to the charity stripe and stretched the lead to 75-72 with 3.4 seconds remaining. A final throw in from the Rams and a steal from
Micah Ladd put it away as the Polars came out National Champions!
Buckner totaled 30 points in the contest on 10 made field goals and totaled 9 rebounds. Carroll followed up his record breaking performance with a 16 point effort. Carroll earned the tournament's most outstanding player and finishes his career 3rd in NCAA-era Crown history in career points with 1,421 points.
Jacob Masek and
Micah Ladd both totaled 4 assists in the contest. As a team Crown shot 41.9% from the field going 26-62 and 31.6% from three point range going 6-19. The Polars went 17-20 from the free throw line as a team.
Crown finishes the season as NCCAA DII National Champions as they finish the 2023-24 season with a record of 20-10 overall and 7-7 in UMAC play.
