Top 10 Stories of 2018-19 - #2 Men's Basketball Repeats as Landmark Champions & Earns First NCAA Tournament Victory
BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- Moravian College is continuing its look back at its 2018-19 athletic campaign. The ninth entry in our second countdown of the summer – the Top 10 Stories of the Year selected by the athletic administration – is our No. 2 highlight – the men’s basketball team repeating as Landmark Conference Champions and earning the program’s first-ever NCAA Division III Tournament victory.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- Moravian College is continuing its look back at its 2018-19 athletic campaign. The ninth entry in our second countdown of the summer – the Top 10 Stories of the Year selected by the athletic administration – is our No. 2 highlight – the men's basketball team repeating as Landmark Conference Champions and earning the program's first-ever NCAA Division III Tournament victory.
The Greyhounds, who completed the year with a 20-9 overall record – the second consecutive 20-win season for the Hounds under the direction of fourth-year Head Coach Justin Potts '00, made their fourth overall NCAA Tournament appearance and second straight after capturing the Landmark Conference Championship for the second consecutive February. The Hounds opened the postseason with a 91-73 victory over Susquehanna University in the Landmark Conference Semifinals before traveling to Drew University on Sunday, February 24. The Blue and Grey posted an 86-72 win over the Rangers for their conference title, and senior forward Oneil Holder was named the Landmark Conference Championship's Most Valuable Player after the triumph.
Moravian would head to Clinton, New York and Hamilton College for the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Greyhounds started the weekend with an 86-65 victory over Keene State (N.H.) College before falling to No. 10 Hamilton, 83-72, in the second round. The Hounds had not won in four games in its previous three NCAA berths with the 1983 squad playing two games under the NCAA's previous format of consolation games in opening weekend.
Holder and senior guard Jimmy Murray were both named to the Landmark All-Conference First Team while junior guard C.J. Barnes earned a spot on the All-Conference Second Team. Holder, who was also selected to the 2019 National Association of Basketball Coaches All-Middle Atlantic District Second Team and the D3hoops.com All-Middle Atlantic Region Second Team, finished his career with a school record 110 games played to go with 1,660 points (third all-time), 714 rebounds (sixth all-time) and 113 blocked shots (third all-time) while Murray had 1,522 points (sixth all-time) and a school record 218 three-pointers made in 103 games. Read the original All-Conference release at https://www.moraviansports.com/sports/mbkb/2018-19/releases/20190227gbonm7.
Besides Holder and Murray, Coach Potts had two other seniors on the squad with senior guard Will Brazukas finishing his career with 333 assists (fifth all-time) in 107 games (second to Holder) and senior guard Nicholas Casazza adding 145 career three-pointers (sixth all-time) over the last four seasons.
Look back at the season results at https://www.moraviansports.com/sports/mbkb/2018-19/schedule.
Before announcing the top story of the year on Wednesday, July 31, the Greyhounds will look at some of the stories that received votes from the athletic administrators but did not make the top 10 on Monday, July 29.
