CALDWELL, Idaho – College of Idaho is headed back to Kansas City after a 76-61 win over Xavier University (LA) in the NAIA Second Round on Wednesday.
College of Idaho (32-1) extended its winning streak to 32 games with four players in double figures including
Jake O'Neil (21 pts.),
Drew Wyman (13 pts.),
Johnny Radford (12 pts.) and
Tyler Robinett (11 pts.). O'Neil grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds on his way to his 10th double double on the season.
Xavier University (LA) was paced by a 14-point effort from Cory Wells and 12 points from Xavier Reaves in the loss and ends it season with a 23-9 mark..
After leading for 27:29 in the first round, College of Idaho returned to its familiar way as they led for 37:31 in the win. The visiting Gold Rush led for the first 1:26 of the contest and held a 4-2 lead until back-to-back 3-pointers by Wyman put College of Idaho ahead 7-4 and for the remainder of the contest. XULA managed to cut the deficit to six, 29-23, on a Lance Williams layup with 4:37 left before a 10-2 run by the Yotes ended the first 20 minutes.
With a 14-point halftime lead, it was the 17
th time in 33 games that College of Idaho had a double-digit lead at the break. The Yotes shot 52.2% from the field, including 50% (5-for-10) from beyond the arc. It was the 18
th time in 2022-23 that College of Idaho has made at least 50% of its shots from the field in the first half. O'Neil had 10 of his 21 in the first 20 minutes to lead College of Idaho.
The lead remained double digits for nearly the entire second half except for :15 and Radford had something to say about that as he hit his third 3-pointer to push the lead to 10 with 2:29 to go in the contest.
College of Idaho will make the trek to Kansas City having won its last 14 games by double digits. Next up for the No. 1 seed and No. 1 ranked Yotes will be a matchup against LSU-Shreveport on Monday, March 13 at 3 p.m. (CST)/2 p.m. (MT). The Pilots are members of the same conference as XULA, where the Gold Rush reached the national tournament by winning the Red River Athletic Conference over LSU-Shreveport.
