Here’s who will play for the NAIA Tournament basketball championship in KC on Tuesday
With one blowout and one upset, the final pairing is set for the 87th annual NAIA National Championship men’s basketball tournament at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.
College of Idaho, from Caldwell, Idaho, beat Arizona Christian 72-45 in Monday’s first semifinal at the historic downtown venue to claim the first of two berths in the tournament’s ultimate game.
The second semifinal was a jaw-dropper of a different sort, with No. 7 seed Oklahoma Wesleyan knocking out No. 1-seeded Freed-Hardeman — the defending national champion — 84-78.
College of Idaho will play Oklahoma Wesleyan for the national championship at 7 p.m. Tuesday inside Municipal Auditorium.
The first semifinal was a battle of No. 1 seeds, but it wound up being fairly one-sided. The Yotes (34-2) from Idaho led Arizona Christian (30-5) 38-16 at intermission and kept mashing the gas in the second half.
Led by Samaje Morgan’s 14 points, four College of Idaho starters scored in double figures. The one who didn’t came as close as he could, with 9.
Neither team shot it well from the field, but College of Idaho (35.2%) was just a bit warmer than the Firestorm (26.3%) in that crucial statistic.
Next up was the nightcap, and it was a thriller — for Oklahoma Wesleyan fans. The Eagles (27-7) gave Freed-Hardeman (30-6) of Tennessee all it could handle and then some.
Oklahoma Wesleyan led 42-40 at halftime and Freed-Hardeman, a 10-time tourney participant, only fell further behind as the game progressed. The margin swelled to 13 midway through the second half; the Lions pulled within 4 late, but that’s as close as they’d come to dodging a semifinal stunner.
Redshirt senior guard/forward Dylan Phillip led Oklahoma Wesleyan with 24 points and senior guard Derrick Talton Jr. added 23.
Junior forward Peyton Law and graduate wing Jordan Stephens paced Freed-Hardeman with 22 points apiece; Law also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.
Underdog Oklahoma Wesleyan, which will be playing another No. 1 seed Tuesday, reached Monday’s semifinal round with a 98-87 quarterfinal win against LSU Alexandria (Louisiana) Saturday. Freed-Hardeman beat Southern Oregon 69-56 in the weekend quarterfinals.
College of Idaho, located in Caldwell, Idaho, arrived in the semifinals with an 83-71 quarterfinal win against Georgetown (Kentucky), while Arizona Christian, from Glendale, Arizona, had advanced with a 73-71 victory over Grace (Indiana).
Per usual, this year’s eventual NAIA national champion will have won four games in a six-day span here in Kansas City. It’s a grueling slate of competition, but for the overall victor it will have been well worth the trip.
This is the 79th time the tournament has been contested in Kansas City.
This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 7:17 PM.