Fourteen hundred miles away from Santa Barbara, Sylvester Spicer of Rogers State (Okla.) dropped two free throws through a net with three seconds left in overtime to hand No. 6 Southern Nazarene (Okla.) a 72-71 loss in the semifinals of the Sooner Athletic Conference. It also burst a bubble in the foothills of Santa Barbara.
The Westmont men’s basketball team, which was hoping for a at-large berth into the NAIA National Tournament, was eliminated from consideration by Southern Nazarene’s loss.
The Warriors received the thirtieth most votes in the final NAIA Men’s Basketball ranking and would only make the tournament if two or less unranked teams made it into the tournament. NAIA at-large bids are determined solely by the final poll.
Before conference play even began, two unranked teams were already guaranteed entry into nationals via a host bid from the Heart of America Athletic Conference and an automatic bid from the Red River Conference. Tonight’s result in Bethany, Oklahoma assured that the Sooner Athletic Conference would also send an unranked team to Kansas City.
The Warriors end the 2009-10 season with a record of 21-9.
