A season played through a global pandemic is coming closer to its end date as the men's basketball team heads to Dallas, Tx for the 2021 NCCAA DII SW Region Tournament on the campus of Dallas Christian College. Coming off of both a regular season and conference tournament championship the Thunder have earned the #3 seed in the North division and will open up quarterfinal play on Thursday, February 25th, at 4:00 pm against the #2 seed in the South division, Arlington Baptist University. Should the Thunder win on Thursday they would advance to the semifinals where they would play the winner of the #1 seed in the North, Barclay College, and the #5 seed in the South, SW Adventist University at 6:30 pm on Friday. The championship is scheduled for a 3:00 pm tip on Saturday. 

MCC enters the tournament with a 17-8 overall record that includes a record of 15-3 against NCCAA competition. The only three losses the Thunder have eaten this season have come vs teams in the NCCAA top ten. The Thunder also boast victories over several teams that are either currently in or have been in the top 10 this year. MCC is currently ranked #5 in the final NCCAA Coaches Poll where they are joined by four other members of the SW Region, Randall (#1), Kansas Christian (#3), Barclay College (#8) and Arlington Baptist (#9). MCC currently sits at #4 in the NCCAA Power Ratings. 

"The Southwest Region is as deep as its ever been and we know that this game with Arlington is going to be tough. They are as tough to stop as any team we've seen all season and are very well coached. They might have the two best players in the region with Mallard and Stafford and heading to Texas to play them will certainly be a challenge, but we are looking forward to it," commented Head Coach, Jordan Strom. 

Dallas Christian College is the host of the tournament and will be updating tournament results and stats on the official tournament page here. There will also be a live stream of each contest available here. Due to COVID-19 restrictions there will be limits to fans in attendance and those reservations have already been made through the coaching staff. 

2021 NCCAA DII SW Region Seeds:

1N. Barclay College
2N. Kansas Christian College
3N. Manhattan Christian College
4N. Ozark Christian College
5N. Spurgeon College (Not participating)

1S. Randall University 
2S. Arlington Baptist University
3S. Champion Christian College
4S. Dallas Christian College (Eliminated in play-in game)
5S. Southwestern Adventist University (Advanced in play-in game)

A second chance is what the doctor ordered after the Thunder were beat in a top 10 matchup at the SW Region Tournament by Arlington Baptist University. MCC earned the final at-large bid to the NCCAA DII National Championships and will be the #6 seed where they will take on another at-large selection out of the Mid-East region, #3 Johnson Univeristy. If the matchup looks familiar that's because it is. These two schools were scheduled to play in the first round of the 2020 NCCAA DII tournament before COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the tournament. 

"It's crazy how it all worked out this season. I know everyone was disappointed at the end of the 2020 season when COVID cancelled all of our tournaments and our off-seasons were put on pause. It's really amazing to sit back and think about everything that has happened over the course of the last twelve months and to be sitting here, right now, with the opportunity to play... man, I'm just so excited for our guys," commented Head Coach, Jordan Strom. 

The task will not be an easy one for the Thunder (17-9, 9-1) as they enter their 12th NCCAA DII tournament appearance all time. Johnson University (11-7, 5-0) enters the tournament as the #3 overall seed, earning a bid via the at-large selection process. 

"Johnson University is a household name and Coach Perry has done a tremendous job during his time there of competing for national championships on a regular basis. Their roster is very talented and it's led by senior Coby Jones, who is a player of the year candidate. Obviously, to advance we are going to need to be at our best," said Strom.

The Royals entered the Mid-East Region Tournament as the #1 overall seed where they dropped their semifinal contest to powerhouse, Grace Christian University, who would eventually win that region tournament. The Thunder would be victims of a similar circumstance as they lost their quarterfinal contest to #8 Arlington Baptist University at the SW Region Tournament. While both teams would fall earlier than expected in their respective region tournaments both would earn at-large bids to the NCCAA DII Championships this week. 

"Just with everything we've gone through as a team and the emotions of the last three weeks we are extremely thankful to have a chance to play this week and we're excited to have a shot at playing one of the premier teams in the country," commented Strom. 

Action begins on Wednesday, March 10th, at 8:00 PM CST when the Thunder and the Royals clash in Joplin. All games can be seen live on the NCCAA Network and heard live as long time voice of the NCCAA DII Basketball Tournament, Rick Cooper, provides a free play-by-play audio call of the tournament that is complete with pre and post game interviews and game previews. 

NCCAA DII National Tournament Field:
#1 Randall University (at-large out of the SW Region)
#2 Kansas Christian College (SW Region Champion)
#3 Johnson University (at-large out of the ME Region)
#4 Grace Christian University (ME Region Champion) 
#5 Arlington Baptist University (at-large out of the SW Region)
#6 Manhattan Christian College (at-large out of the SW Region)
#7 SE Baptist University (S Region Champion)
#8 Calvary University (N Region Champion)

Tournament Information: https://thenccaa.org/tournaments/?id=619&path=mbball2
Live Stream Link ($$$): https://thenccaa.org/tournaments/?id=486&path=network
Live Audio Stream (FREE): http://war.str3am.com:7570/live - Link will go live 30 minutes before tip off

The men's basketball team qualified for the NCCAA DII National Championships as the final at-large selection into the field of eight and found themselves in a matchup with the #3 seeded Johnson University Royals on Thursday night. The matchup featured Maravich award winner, Coby Jones, and the hardnosed Royals against the high powered Thunder, who entered the game as one of the top scoring teams in the country. The game started out as a defensive battle with both teams struggling to put the ball in the hole. In the last five minutes of the first half the Royals were able to open up the lead and take a 7 point advantage at the half. 

In the second half, MCC would again start cold and find themselves down by as many as 14 points with fifteen to go. They would battle back, however, and cut it back to single digits with 9 minutes left. The lead would stay between nine and twelve over the next several minutes as MCC would fail to make up any ground. With 4:40 on the clock and down eleven, MCC would begin a furious come back that ended with Jordan White freethrows to force overtime. In the first overtime, MCC would again draw a deficet and have to battle. With 2.4 seconds on the clock, Jordan White would grab the rebound off of a second free throw from Johnson and launch a three quarter-court shot to force a second OT. With many players fouled out, the Thunder would run out of gas in the second OT and fall 92-97. 

The loss would force a short turnaround for MCC as they played today at 12:00 pm in the consolation semi-finals against the champions from the South Region, Southeastern Baptist College. MCC would come out strong and get up by as many as 27 points before coasting to a ten point victory. The Thunder would rack up 20 assists in the game. The win now sets up a consolation championship matchup with the Tigers from Grace Christian University on Saturday at 3:30 PM.