2009 ACCA Tournament Summary

#7 Champion Baptist College vs. # 2 Barclay College (Havilland, Kansas)
 It did not take long for the 2009 ACCA Tournament to kick into high gear, even with late start times on Wednesday evening. One word that would classify the late game at Bethany High School is Physical. Although, you would probably expect any game in March to have some degree of physicality, given what was at stake, the chance to keep playing for an ACCA Division 2 title. The contest was very much back and forth during the first half with Barclay countering every attempt at an upset by #7 seeded Champion Baptist; however, as the contest moved deep into the second half Champion's "Championship" experience was the deciding factor. Championship experience earned by a National Title run only two short years ago. Many players still remain from that championship team, including seniors, Andrew Pryor, Jake Weido and Marc Likins. Marc Likins’ and Andrew Pryor’s leadership on the defensive end stood out while Jake Weido finished with 3 blocked shots and 4 steals. As with the run two years ago, Pryor and Weido were an integral part of the Tigers offense, ending with 7 and 16 points respectively. Because Barclay was able to contain the two seniors with swarming team defense, the scoring load was picked up by Sophomore James Manthe, who added 31 points and 12 rebounds in the upset win. Ryan Smith came off the bench and scored 9 crucial points while seven clutch free throws by Travis Hendershot secured the Tiger’s upset win.
Final Score: Champion 79 Barclay 72
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#7 Champion Baptist College vs. #3 AFLBS (Plymouth, Minnesota)
AFLBS (Association Free Lutheran Bible School) came into the National Semi Final game by snatching victory away from Ozark Christian College after hitting a buzzer-beating shot to win by one point. Little did they know that the very same fate that got them into the semifinals would be what knocked them out also. The game plan for Champion would be very similar to the previous game against Barclay. Defensively, stop the big men. Jeremiah Growth, a 6’ 7’’ center was a late addition to the Conquerors and played alongside ACCA All-American 6’ 7’’ Travis Pflughaupt who averaged an unbelievable 26 points and 14 rebounds per game this season. Senior forward Marc Likins (also known as Louisville Lockdown) asked Coach Fredericks for the challenge of slowing down Pflughaupt, which he did by limiting his touches. In the first 32 minutes of the game, the All-American had 9 points on 4/5 shooting. It was when Likins fouled out with 7 minutes to go that Pflughaupt went to work finishing with 23 points and 18 rebounds. James Manthe scored 20 points for the Tigers as seniors Jake Weido and Andrew Pryor added 16 and 15 respectively. This close game was finally decided with less than 10 seconds to go. With the game tied at 59 and 7.9 seconds to go, AFLBS was inbounding the ball to go full court for the game-winning basket. The Tigers’ pressure forced the Conquerors into an errant pass which led to a travelling violation giving the Tigers the ball at mid court with 4.2 seconds to go. After receiving the inbounding pass at the free throw line, Jake Weido faked a hand-off to James Manthe and then turned to attack the basket. With four guys collapsing on Weido, he shot the game winning lay-up with .02 seconds showing on the clock. The Conquerors were unable to score, and the Tigers advanced to their second National Championship game in three years.
Final Score: Champion 61 AFLBS 59
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#7 Champion Baptist College vs. #1 Canadian Mennonite (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
This championship game definitely lived up to its pre-game hype. Two teams with two totally different styles of play. Canadian Mennonite with a guard orientated line-up would look to push the ball and score their 99 points per game average. The Tigers on the other hand would look to control tempo, run their sets, feed the posts, and play physical defense. The question for this game was, “which team would be able to impose their will on the other?”. Defense once again would be the difference. Senior Marc Likins stepped up and held the Blazers leading scorer to just 11 points on 4 of 12 shooting, including 1 of 8 from three point land. The Tigers team defense was swarming, holding the Blazers to 72 points, 27 points less than their average. Offensively, the Tigers seemed to get off any shot they wanted as they posted nearly a 50% field goal percentage. Seniors Andrew Pryor and Jake Weido played great in their final game as Tigers. Andrew had 11 points and 6 rebounds, and Jake had 15 points and 12 rebounds. The difference was James Manthe, who had 32 points on 12 of 17 shooting, including 5 of 6 from behind the three point line. But the most impressive fact may be that James, as the teams point guard, had zero turnovers. With 13 lead changes and 5 ties this game, as expected, went down to the wire. The Tigers were able to fend off a last second shot by the Blazers; and as time ran out, the Tigers had successfully beaten the #2 seed Barclay Bears, the #3 seed AFLBS Conquerors, and in beating the #1 seed Canadian Mennonites, became the ACCA National Champions for the second time in three years!
Final Score: Champion 74 Canadian Mennonite 72
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In just their fourth year as a school and program, the Tigers were well-represented in the ACCA with the following awards:
2008-2009 Academic All-Americans: Damon Grego, Travis Hendershot, Marc Likins, Andrew Pryor, Ryan Smith
2008-2009 1st Team All-American: Andrew Pryor
2008-2009 2nd Team All-American: James Manthe
2008-2009 Honorable Mention All-American: Jake Weido
2008-2009 ACCA Tournament MVP: James Manthe
2008-2009 ACCA All Tourney Team: Jake Weido
2008-2009 ACCA David Terry Award: Marc Likins

View final tournament bracket.
Download Photo Collage of:
• Medal Ceremony
• Net Cutting
• Dunk Contest 1
• Dunk Contest 2