APPLETON, Wis. -- The Lawrence University men's basketball team made history Saturday night and quieted a whole lot of Buena Vista University fans in the process.
Lawrence beat Buena Vista 72-66 in the second round of the NCAA Division III Championship and earned a berth in the Sweet 16 for the first time. It marked the first time a Midwest Conference team has ever advanced to the Sweet 16 with the tournament in its current 48-team format. It is also the first time a MWC school has ever won two winner's bracket games (there were consolation games at one time) in the tournament.
The Vikings' hard-nosed effort silenced the partisan crowd of 1,628 at Siebens Fieldhouse in Storm Lake, Iowa. The small but vocal contingent from Lawrence stormed the floor after the Vikings ran out the final few seconds on the clock.
Lawrence (23-4) heads to Tacoma, Wash., to face Sul Ross State (21-8) from tiny Alpine, Texas, in the Sweet 16 at 6:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. Central) on Friday. Pugent Sound (24-2) takes on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (25-5) at 8:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. Central).
The winners meet at 7:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. Central) Saturday with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
Lawrence built an 11-point lead in the first half against Buena Vista, but the Beavers cut that to 28-22 at the half. The Buena Vista faithful exploded when the Beavers tied the game at 34-34 on Brian Sohn's 3-pointer with 12:14 left.
Chris MacGillis put a quick stop to that with back-to-back 3-pointers, and he was fouled on the second trey and made the free throw to put the Vikings up 41-34. Lawrence would never lead by less than five points the rest of the way.
Kyle MacGillis' 3-pointer with 3:19 left put Lawrence up 59-49, but the Beavers cut the lead to 59-54 before Dan Evans drained another 3-pointer for Lawrence.
Buena Vista was forced to foul and Lawrence hit 10 of 14 free throws in the final 1:12 to seal the victory.
Chris MacGillis led all scorers with 18 points, and he was 9 of 9 from the free-throw line. Kyle MacGillis added a season-high 14 points. Braier and Evans added 11 points apiece, and Braier had a game-high 20 rebounds.
Rob Nenahlo scored only six points, but he locked up Buena Vista standout guard Eric Wiebers, who was limited to 12 points on 4 of 18 shooting. Scott Weber, Buena Vista's leading scorer and the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year, led the Beavers with 16 points, but fouled out with 7:51 left.
Lawrence dealt Buena Vista only its second home loss this season and just its sixth loss at Siebens Fieldhouse in its previous 57 games.
Sul Ross advanced with a 74-72 win at Trinity (Texas), Puget Sound downed Pomona-Pitzer 89-75 to advance, and Stevens Point moved on with a 66-55 win at Gustavus Adolphus.