Hankins, Ferris State win D-II title game
Bracket perfection didn’t reach Elite territory this year
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Zach Hankins led Ferris State to its first NCAA Division II national championship in any sport Saturday, scoring 19 points in the Bulldogs’ 71-69 victory over Northern State. The Bulldogs (38-1) won their final 26 games and set a school record for wins in a season.
Darin Peterka’s basket with 4:27 to play gave the Wolves their first lead of the second half at 65-64. Carter Evans hit a jumper, and his two-handed alley-oop dunk from Peterka gave them a three-point lead with about three minutes left.
Peter Firlik hit two free throws and Hankins made a layup to give the Bulldogs a 70-69 lead with 90 seconds left, and Markese Mayfield’s free throws with 10 seconds remaining capped the scoring. Northern State committed three turnovers and went 0 for 2 from the field — including a clean look from 3-point range by Peterka with two seconds left — in the final three minutes.
Firlik, who finished with 12 points, and Mayfield combined to score 19 of the Bulldogs’ 23 points in the second half. Evans led the Wolves (36-4) with 20 points on 10-of-14 shooting.
BUSTED: ESPN says there were 17.3 million entrees into its bracket contest. And zero — as in nary a one — got the Elite Eight teams correct. So maybe you don’t have to feel so badly about your up-in-smoke picks?
USC: Coach Andy Enfield has dipped into the AAU ranks for an assistant coach. Eric Mobley, who has guided AAU teams for the last 11 years, joined USC on Saturday.
Mobley is the father of two highprofile recruits, according to ESPN — Isaiah, a 6-foot-10 high school junior and the No. 44-ranked prospect in the Class of 2019, and Evan, also 6-10 and in the Class of 2020.
MTSU: In Murfreesboro, Tenn., Middle Tennessee has a new basketball coach in Nick McDevitt, who led UNC Asheville to the Big South regular-season title the last two years.
He replaces Kermit Davis, who left to coach Mississippi after going 332188 in 16 seasons.
CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN: The Big 12 and ACC were leading the way entering the Elite Eight.
The Big 12 earned seven tournament bids and had three teams (Kansas, Texas Tech and Kansas State) still alive to go with an 11-4 tournament record (.733) entering the weekend’s Elite Eight games (Kansas State lost on Saturday). The ACC tied its own record with nine bids and had two left (Duke and FSU, before the Seminoles lost Saturday) to go with a 12-7 record (.632). The Big East (Villanova), Big Ten (Michigan) and Missouri Valley Conference (Loyola-Chicago) have the other spots.