Box Score
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – As officials were verifying whether
Bunja Yaboe's tip-in occurred before or after the final buzzer in Wayland Baptist's game against Evangel, Mo., in Wednesday's opening round of the NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championships, Matt Garnett delivered a heartfelt message to his team.
"As they reviewed the play with no time on the clock, it was kind of a fitting moment," the Pioneers coach said. "I told them that whether it counts or it doesn't, that play is not going to define what you've done this year."
Unfortunately for the No. 11 Pioneers, the bucket didn't count. Officials' reviewed video that showed Yaboe's tip-in came about a half-second after the buzzer, and 22
nd-ranked Evangel escaped Municipal Auditorium with a thrilling 67-66 victory.
"It didn't go our way, but I love these guys very much," Garnett said. "I couldn't be more proud to have the chance to coach them. That's just a really special group of young men."
As for the game itself, the coach said, "It was a crazy one."
Crazy all the way from Wayland's fast start to the wild finish.
The Pioneers (27-6), whose first four field goals of the game were 3-pointers, led by as many as six in the early going, but things quickly went south. Wayland trailed by as many as 19 points, 57-38, midway through the second half.
"We never really found a rhythm, offensively or defensively. We just never got that figured out," Garnett said. "We struggled for probably 31 minutes, and a lot of that is credited to a very good Evangel team."
About the time Wayland appeared out of it, things began happening for the Pioneers, and Wayland started its furious comeback.
"Our guys have a lot of guts and a lot of toughness," Garnett said. "I just knew they would keep trying to figure it out and make a push."
Wayland outscored Evangel 16-2 to pull to within five, 59-54, with 4½ minutes still remaining.
The Crusaders (21-12) pushed their lead back out to 10, 66-56, on a 3-pointer that proved to be Evangel's final field goal of the game with a little over two minutes to go.
Wayland, meanwhile, prepared for one last rally.
Yaboe put in a field goal,
Royal Crouch hit a pair of free throws, and
Plamen Hristov scored a bucket to take Wayland to within four points with about a minute on the clock. Then
Ta'Quan McDew and
Robert Waters teamed up for a steal that resulted in Waters feeding McDew for a fast-break bucket that cut it to 66-64 with 45 seconds to go.
After a timeout by Evangel, Brodie Wingert made one of two free throws for the Crusaders. Wayland wasted no time getting off a shot, and McDew nailed it to get the Pioneers to within one with 30 seconds left.
Evangel's Josh Veurink went to the free-throw line for two and missed them both, and after Yaboe grabbed the rebound, Wayland called timeout with 13 ticks left and a chance to pull off a miracle win.
They almost made it happen.
Waters drove down the right side of the lane before dishing it back out to McDew, who dribbled down the left side of the lane and put up a fall-away 12-footer along the baseline. The shot hit short and bounced across the rim where a crashing Hristov got a hand on it and knocked it back across to the other side, where McDew found himself open for another try.
The senior's putback touched off the backboard and bounced twice around the rim. With the ball falling away, Yaboe reached up and tipped it in.
But it was too late…barely.
"It was close," Garnett said.
One official immediately ruled the bucket came after the buzzer, and after checking the video, the call was upheld.
Evangel wins by one.
"We almost pulled it off," Garnett said.
"It's such a different emotion. Whether you win by one or lose by one is so exaggerated from the true performance of the team," he added. "That last nine minutes is such a testament to the kind of team our guys are. They literally would not roll over; they would not quit.
"As a coach you know you're going to lose some games in heart-breaking fashion. What makes me really proud and literally not look back with regrets is I know how badly our guys wanted to play really well today. It was just one of those days when they were having trouble getting things done the way we wanted to."
Evangel advances to the second round on Friday to play sixth-seeded Dalton St., Ga. (28-4), which defeated Wiley, Texas, in the tournament's opening game, 97-86.
In his final game as a Pioneer, Crouch scored a game-high 22 points to give him 922 for his two-year Wayland career. Yaboe contributed 12 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the year, while Hristov added 11 points and McDew 10.
Evangel got 20 points from Wingert, 14 from Richard Chapman and 10 from Nick Yocum. Team scoring leader Korry Tillery was held to nine, less than half his average, although he came up with 20 rebounds, exactly half of Evangel's total.
Despite Garnett's message to his team, the loss was hard for the Pioneers to swallow. The coach said the hurt won't last.
"I told them afterwards that the hurt that you're feeling right now is because you care so much. The greatest moments in our lives all come with a very difficult possibility that things aren't going to work out. But you have to risk the hurt and continue to care as deeply as they did this year, because that's what life's about.
"Right now we're experiencing the tough side of that, but what a journey they had.
"They were such a deserving (conference) champion. When you hang a banner it's something no one ever takes from you, and to do that for the first time in program history makes it even more special. It couldn't have gone to a more deserving group. There have been a lot of great players come through here, and I think this team honored the tradition of Wayland basketball in a good way.
"As I said before, this is a team that I'm very proud to have coached. All of the really great things they did were a direct result of the quality players and quality young men they are.
"There's a Dr. Seuss quote that says, 'Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.' It's not going to be too hard for our guys to smile when they look back on this season.
"They'll get to appreciate that in the days to come."
