Tyler Geiman’s 57-foot swish gives Washburn MIAA tourney title over No. 1 Bearcats
A 57-foot three-point heave brought down the nation’s top-ranked team in a conference championship game on its home floor.
March Madness has begun.
Washburn’s Tyler Geiman took the inbounds pass, took two dribbles and let it fly just before the buzzer sounded. Swish! The Ichabods had defeated Northwest Missouri, ranked first in NCAA Division II, 69-68 in the MIAA men’s basketball championship game on Saturday night.
“Right as I released it, it felt good,” Geiman said. “I knew it was going to be on line, so it had a chance.”
The contest was played on the Bearcats’ home floor in Maryville and not at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City because of COVID-19 restrictions. Northwest was bidding for its sixth straight MIAA Tournament title.
The basket gave Washburn its first MIAA Tournament title since 2012, and it allowed Washburn to forget about a foul whistled against Geiman that sent Northwest’s Diego Bernard to the free throw line. With 2.7 seconds remaining, Bernard hit both shots to give the Bearcats a 68-66 lead.
Geiman, a senior and two-time Eastern Kansas League player of the year at Blue Valley High School, finished with 23 points. Teammate Jalen Lewis was chosen the tournament’s most outstanding player.
The victory makes Washburn the MIAA’s automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division II tournament, and another meeting with Northwest is possible on that bracket.
The Ichabods (19-6) and Northwest (23-2), the top-ranked team in Division II, have played three times this season. The two regular season games went into overtime with each team winning on its opponent’s floor. And now an epic finish in a conference title game.
The MIAA women’s championship game is Sunday with Fort Hays State playing host to Nebraska-Kearney at 2 p.m.
This story was originally published March 7, 2021 at 9:00 AM.