LateSeasonSurge

Junior Brian Ormon dunks the ball in a PLNU win early this season. The Sea Lions qualified for the NAIA national tournament this week. Photo by Amanda Addie

The PLNU men’s basketball team returns to the NAIA national tournament this week for the first time since 2003, after finishing tied for third in the GSAC.

The Sea Lions, who finished the season 23-9, will take on No. 9 Southern Nazarene (23-8) in the first round of the 32-team tournament held in Kansas City, Mo.

All-GSAC point guard Josh Sanderson, who has seen his team come up one win short of qualifying for the national tournament in his sophomore and junior seasons, is excited for the opportunity to finally get there as a senior.

“It’s an awesome feeling for the seniors,” said Sanderson. “Hopefully we can get over there and not just be happy with being there, but try to do some damage.”

The Sea Lions face a tough task against fellow Nazarene school SNU, which finished second in the Sooner Athletic Conference and swept defending national champion Oklahoma City.

“It’s not an unfamiliar team,” said head coach Art Wilmore. “It’s not one that doesn’t bring motivation, as we’ve gotten beat by them twice.”

The Crimson Storm defeated the Sea Lions 97-85 at last season’s Homecoming and 89-84 the season before on SNU’s home court in Oklahoma.

SNU is led by junior All-SAC guard Brandon Durham, who is leading the team in scoring (15.4 points per game). The Crimson Storm’s roster also includes Earl Isaacson, a former PLNU player who transferred in 2004.

Wilmore and the coaching staff remain very optimistic about the team’s chances, as this year’s Sea Lion team has many new players and plays a different style than last season’s.

“They’ll remember Josh,” said Wilmore, “but they won’t know Curtis [Carlson], Craig [Austin] or Brian [Ormon].”

Wilmore also pointed to the game’s late start time as an advantage.

“We play at 10:30 p.m., which is 8:30 our time and still 10:30 their time,” he said.

Wilmore added that if the team can win the first-round game, it would give the players a sense of momentum that could take them a long way.

In 2001, while coaching San Diego Christian, Wilmore led his team all the way to the NAIA Final Four. He also guided PLNU to a tournament appearance in 2003, but the Sea Lions lost in the first round.
Although no one on the Sea Lions’ roster has had experience in the national tournament, coaches expect the team to benefit from playing in crucial games toward the end of the season.

“I feel like we’ve been in a single-game elimination tournament for the last couple weeks,” said Ethan Hamilton, associate head coach. “We knew going into those last four conference games that each of those were a must-win situation, and I think we responded well.”

The Sea Lions finished the regular season on a four-game winning streak, then knocked Vanguard out of the conference tournament before losing a tightly contested game to first-place Concordia in the GSAC semifinals.

Just two weeks ago, PLNU had received a 104-72 throttling from the Eagles, the last of a four-game losing streak that threatened to end PLNU’s national tournament hopes.

But the Sea Lions responded with five straight wins, before taking the sixth-ranked Eagles down to the wire at their home gym in Irvine.
The late season surge was enough to earn the Sea Lions an at-large berth in the tournament to join fellow GSAC teams Concordia, Cal Baptist and Azusa Pacific.

PLNU takes on SNU at 10:30 p.m. PDT on Wednesday. The game will be broadcast on the KPLR Web site.

PLNU is 4-7 all-time at the tournament, but has not won a game at nationals since 1958.