Ferris State men’s basketball remains dancing in the DII NCAA tournament following their victories over the Northern Michigan Wildcats on Saturday, March 16 and the University of Indianapolis Greyhounds on Sunday, March 17.
The Bulldogs entered the tournament as the No. 5 seed. The team is fresh off a GLIAC tournament title and looks to make a run deep into March. The team traveled to the University of Indianapolis’ Nicoson Hall to face off against an interconference foe in the No. 4 seeded Northern Michigan. The Bulldogs earned an 81-65 win to upset the higher-seeded Wildcats to move on to the next round.
The Bulldog’s first half got them off to a great start, which Northern Michigan failed to come back from. Ferris’ combination of defense and offense had the team take a 41-24 lead at the half.
Head coach Andy Bronkema likes what he saw from his team tonight and is happy they are moving on.
“I liked our focus tonight,” Bronkema said. “We weren’t perfect, but it’s a game of mistakes, and when we made a mistake we moved on. We focused back in on the next play and we made a lot of plays. Guys stepped up tonight and made a lot of plays.”
Ferris won the rebound battle, as they outrebounded their opponent 44-35 and dominated the points in the paints 38-26.
Ferris had three players reach double digits in the game with senior guard Ben Davidson and junior guard Ethan Erickson leading the way with 19 points. Senior forward Desean Munson finished with 12 points along with a team-leading eight rebounds while senior guard Amari Lee finished with a game-high eight assists.
Davidson is excited to be in the second round again and is thankful for it while knowing more work needs to be done.
“It’s not easy,” Davidson said. “You can do everything right and not get here. This is three straight years we have been able to get to the round of 32 and the last two years that’s as far as we’ve gone. We did everything right, we had talented teams [but] it’s basketball. Anybody can win, we’re just excited to be here. We’re having fun but it’s also a business trip.”
The Bulldogs then took on the No. 1 seed and region host University of Indianapolis, which ended with Ferris advancing to its first Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2018 following a 94-87 upset in overtime.
The Bulldogs once trailed by 13 points with under 10 minutes remaining in the game. However, Ferris was able to fight back and tie the game up with 48 seconds left. Both teams were unable to take advantage of the opportunity to get the go-ahead basket, causing the game to be sent into overtime. The Bulldogs went on to outscore their opponents in the extra period 20-13 to advance to keep dancing.
Senior forward Dolapo Olayinka is pleased with the all-around team effort that pulled off the comeback upset win.
“We all did the best we could,” Olayinka said. “Play defense and just kept fighting no matter what, we were down a lot and just kept fighting. That’s why we’re dawgs, baby. We have the heart and we don’t want to go home.”
Leading the team was Davidson with 25 points, Erickson with 22 points, Munson with 15 points and Lee finished with 11 points.
By the time of publishing, men’s basketball will have competed against the Lake Superior State Lakers in the round of 16 on Tuesday, March 19. For results, please visit https://www.ferrisstatebulldogs.com/sports/mbkb/2023-24/schedule.