CLEVELAND — With so much talk about the Cavaliers or even the upcoming MAC tournament, it can be easy to forget some of the great basketball we get from Northeast Ohio's smaller colleges and universities. It is in these tiny arenas where the game is often played at its purest form with local enthusiasm at a fever pitch, especially with several hometown kids taking the court.
Of course, there are games to be won, and this week two of Greater Cleveland's premiere private schools moved further along the road to a national championship. Case Western Reserve is headed to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Men's Division III Basketball Tournament, while Baldwin Wallace did the same in the women's bracket.
For the Spartans, the road has been far from easy, as they had to win two nail-biters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The tourney began Friday with CRWU erasing a 13-point deficit against Dubuque before eventually prevailing 91-87 in overtime, with six members of the team scoring in double figures.
Case then took on the hometown Titans Saturday night, and this time fell into a 16-point hole. However, Ryan Newton had 21 points and nine rebounds off the bench, and with less than 11 seconds to play, Cole Frilling came out of nowhere to make a second-chance layup that put the Spartans ahead for good and upset the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament.
Over on the women's side, BW got to breathe a little bit easier, taking back-to-back contests over Salisbury and Gettysburg by identical 66-54 scores. Lilly Edwards led the way for the Yellow Jackets, combining to score 50 points and haul in 23 rebounds in the two games.
With each field now down to 16 teams apiece, the action will get back up and running Friday night. Case Western Reserve will host the sectional round in Cleveland and will play Mary Hardin-Baylor, while Baldwin Wallace will head to Whitewater, Wisconsin to face Oshkosh.
