KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The Fire had a hard time keeping a hot shooting Ottawa (Ariz.) team down Monday during the NAIA Men's Basketball National Tournament Round of 16 contest at Municipal Auditorium.
OUAZ shot 57.4% from the field and 86.4% at the free throw line to come away with a 79-71 victory to advance to the national quarterfinal.
"We missed some shots in both halves that we normally hit and failed to get a stop when we needed one," said coach
Randy Lee. "Ottawa played well and hit their free throws, we just didn't have enough in our tanks tonight."
Southeastern got off to a solid start, using a 12-2 run over a four-minute span to take a 20-12 advantage with 11:27 left in the first half.
Reggie Mesidor was key to the run, scoring nine of those points off the bench.
"Reggie plays well in big moments and was solid early and gave our offense a spark like he has all year," said Lee.
The Spirit came back with an 8-0 run to tie the game at 20 with 7:32 left. During that span, the Fire were 0-for-7 from the field and 0-for-5 from 3-point land.
The teams stayed even through the balance of the half and were tied at 33 at the intermission.
A 3-pointer by
Riley Minix and a layup by
Jalan Mull had the Fire up five just 100 seconds into the second half. The Spirit responded with an 8-1 run to go up 41-39 with 15:06 left, just a 2-for-3 effort from 3-point range to regain the lead.
The teams stayed within three points of each other for the next six-and-a-half minutes until a pair of free throws at the 8:26 mark gave OUAZ a 56-51 lead during a 10-0 run where the Spirit made each shot it took to go up 58-51 with 7:46 left on a Keshawn Bruner dunk.
Ottawa pushed the lead to eight with 6:23 left on a three-point play and took a double-digit lead on a pair of free throws with 5:09 left to make it 63-53. The Fire got within five with 3:07 to play, using a 3-of-4 effort by Minix at the line, but the Spirit came back with a pair of free throws of their own.
Minix was the game's leading scorer and rebounder with 28 points and 12 boards, going 10-of-23 from the field. He also had three assists, three blocks, and a steal.
"Our guys do a great job with Riley and getting him the ball in spots and he makes big plays," said Lee. "We got big plays from him on both ends, and made a defensive impact, rebounding, and scoring as well as setting up other guys with his effort."
Mesidor finished with 18 points, and Mull added 13.
