Lakers Earn No. 4 Seed, Face Shawnee State In Opening Round
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Roosevelt Lakers men's basketball team will head to Livonia, Mich. on March 15 to begin its quest for a national title against Shawnee State, the NAIA announced Thursday evening.
The regular-season champions of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference are the No. 4 seed in the Liston Quadrant of the 2024 NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship. The 11th-ranked Lakers will face the 13th-seeded Bears out of the River States Conference at 7 p.m. CT in Livonia. The pod is being hosted by Madonna University, which was seeded fifth and will face Dordt in the other matchup of the Livonia pod with the two winners scheduled to play at 3 p.m. CT on March 16 for the bid to Kansas City.
This marks the second time in program history Roosevelt has qualified for the national tournament, joining the 2017-18 team that lost in the opening round against Southwestern. However, this year's group was able to capture the program's first CCAC title with a dominant 18-2 mark in league play during the regular season before being upset in the tournament semifinals. The Lakers enter the tournament 25-4, one win shy of the 2017-18 squad for the most wins in program history.
Roosevelt owns five total wins over teams in this year's tournament courtesy of two impressive non-conference victories. The Lakers went 2-0 earlier this season in Livonia, taking down non-tournament team Lawrence Tech on Nov. 3 before defeating Madonna on Nov. 4. Later in the month, the Lakers took down St. Thomas, which earned a No. 3 seed, on Nov. 26 in a neutral site contest in Joliet. Two other CCAC members earned bids to the national tournament and Roosevelt swept Olivet Nazarene, which is a No. 11 seed, and split its season series with Indiana Northwest, a No. 13 seed.
The Lakers are led by their trio of all-CCAC guards on the court as well as team captain Cody Mitchell, who was an all-CCAC honorable mention. Maurice Commander was a first-team selection after averaging 14.3 points per game this year while shooting 44 percent from the floor and 41 percent from 3-point range. The graduate student from Chicago has been electric during his short stint with the Lakers, averaging 15.5 points per game in 42 career appearances.
Julio Montes II and Forte Prater were both second-team picks as the other two Lakers who averaged in double figures scoring. Montes finished the year as the leading scorer at 15 points per game, including dropping 38 on Lawrence Tech for the second-highest point total in program history. Prater averaged 13.6 points per game this season while shooting at a 46-percent clip from the field.
On the bench, the Lakers are under the guidance of CCAC Coach of the Year Dee Brown, who is 44-14 in two years in charge. Under his tutelage this season, Roosevelt ranks third nationally in 3-point percentage at 40.8 percent while ranking seventh in 3-pointers made. The Lakers were also the national leaders in turnovers per game with a measly 8.4 per contest. On the other side of the ball, the Lakers rank seventh in points allowed per game with just 64.4 points against per game.
The contest will mark the first ever matchup between Roosevelt and Shawnee State, and only the Lakers' second time facing an opponent from the RSC. The Lakers lost to Indiana Kokomo on Dec. 29, 2018 in the program's only other game against a team from the River States Conference. The Bears faced the CCAC's Indiana South Bend this season, defeating the Titans by a point on Nov. 18 in South Bend.
Shawnee State enters the tournament at 20-9 overall with a 13-4 record in league play and a 1-6 mark against tournament teams. The Bears average just under 80 points per game and have four players averaging at least 12 points per game, led by Chaze Harris at 19.5 points per game. Keith Germain averages 153 points per game for Shawnee State, followed by 14.9 points per game from Tyreke Johnson and 12.1 points per game from Tre Beard. Harris, Johnson and Germain also all average at least six rebounds per contest with Harris leading the way at 6.7 per game. Harris also leads the Bears with 4.6 assists per game and ranks second behind Germain's 59.6 percent field goal percentage by shooting 56.4 percent.