POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. - 16th ranked Warner Pacific College opens the NAIA Division II Men's Basketball Championship tournament with a first round game on Wednesday evening against 17th ranked Olivet Nazarene University.  The tournament is hosted by College of the Ozarks where the Knights are making their ninth appearance in ten seasons.

Warner Pacific finished the regular season as Cascade Collegiate Conference co-champions for the second time in three years.  At 25-7, the program has won twenty or more games nine of the past ten seasons.  The Knights advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament and earned the third at-large bid to nationals.

Under Cascade Collegiate Conference coach of the year Jared Valentine, Warner Pacific is 1-2 at the national tournament.  The program is 4-8 overall since 2006 and has never won more than one game on the big stage.

 

Doug Thomas, four-year senior from Beaverton is having a career season leading the team in scoring averaging 16.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and a second-best on the team 70 three-pointers.  Junior Earl Jones (Henderson, Nev.) has made the most of his 19 games in a Knight uniform chipping in 15.5 points, netting 37 triples, tied for third on the team while also averaging at least three assists and two steals.  Senior Coletun Tarr (Milwaukie, Ore.) is the team's third leading scoring at 13.8 per game, second best rebounder at 5.1 and he shoots nearly 81% from the free throw line. All three players were named to the all-conference team last week along with senior Michael Hall who earned co-defensive player of the year honors for his 41 blocks.  At 5.5 assists, senior Josh Black (Gold Coast, Australia) is the tenth best passer in the nation.  He's also averaging 1.5 steals.  Ryan Parks, senior from Las Vegas has made more three-pointers than any player in Warner Pacific basketball history by 62 and counting with 300 for his Knight career.

Four players on the Warner Pacific roster have NAIA tournament experience.  Josh Black, Doug Thomas and Ryan Parks are making their third appearance and Coletun Tarr his second.

The #17 Tigers of Olivet Nazarene (25-8) from Bourbonnais, Illinois won both the regular season and conference tournament championships in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference.  ONU is making their first national tournament appearance at the Division II level and 17th overall.  They were formerly a member of Division I.  Hall of Famer Ralph Hodge is the third-winningest active head coach at this level with 730 career wins in 36 seasons and at least 26 of those with twenty or more wins.  Coming into the tournament, ONU has won seven straight games.

Aaron Larson is the workhorse for the Tigers leading them with about 19 points and 8 rebounds while shooting over 55% and averaging three assists per game.  Austin Davis loves to shoot the three-pointer and the rims sure love him.  He's made 100 on the season, third most in the country and shoots 40% from distance.  Austin scores 14.7 points and also dishes for three assists.  Zach Wagner brings a solid eleven points and five rebounds while shooting 59% from the field.  Tyler Crater is their best bench player with 9.5 points while Alex Thorson is averaging 3.5 assists.

Warner Pacific's defense has smothered opponents all season holding teams to under 64 points per game, best in their conference and top ten in the nation.  At 39% from the field and under 30% from three, those are second and third best in the NAIA Division II.  Nine steals per game is 11th in the country.  The Knights shoot 48% from the floor, good for 15th best and 38% from three-point land is ranked 23rd while averaging about 77 points per game.  The Tigers shoot just slightly better at 49%, 10th in the nation and score 80-plus points per game while holding opponents to ten fewer.  They are the third best team in the nation at distributing the ball averaging more than 19 assists while pulling down 39 rebounds per game, ranked 15th.

Unlike many match-ups at the national tournament, Warner Pacific and Olivet Nazarene have met once before in 2011 at an early season tournament in Florida.  Coach Valentine was in his first year and Thomas and Parks were freshmen.  The Tigers won 99-85.  The winner of this first ever postseason meeting between the schools will advance to play either defending champion and number-one ranked Indiana Wesleyan or Brescia in the second round on Friday at 4:00pm local time in round two.

Catch the play-by-play live with Jeremy Scott on 1330AM "The Truth" KKPZ in Portland with the pre-game show starting around 7:30pm, streaming live on the Knights Sports Network and the TuneIn Radio app.