The Bruins men's basketball team clinched the NCCAA DII South Region Championship on Saturday afternoon as the team defeated the Trinity College Tigers 68-65 in a nail-biter. The Bruins made key plays down the stretch to capture their first-ever Regional Championship in the program's five-year history. 

"I'm very proud of these guys," Bruins Head Coach Neal Ring said. "They battled through this game and each player did their job. I'm very proud of our coaching staff who had a great game plan for this game. Our hats off to Trinity as they are a really good team." 
    
The Bruins got off to a rocky start from the 3 pt. line and hit just 1-13 from beyond the arc in the first half. Although Trinity took a six point lead, the Bruins were able to work it back to a tie thanks to good ball movement to find the open shooter. The Bruins got help off the bench from Jayson Barnhart, who tallied 12 points in 24 minutes of play.  
 
The Bruins were playing in front of their home crowd for regionals and the energy from the hometown fans helped to spark the team. The Bruins had four different players in double-figure scoring as well as seven different players who scored points.
 
"We assisted on most of our baskets we tallied 16 assists in the game," Ring said. "We just grinded it out and we had some opportunities to take the lead in the first half, but we were trying to do too much."

Both teams fought hard in the remaining minutes of the first half, but as the halftime buzzer sounded the to teams ended the half knotted at 33-33. 
 
In the second half, the Bruins began to pull away behind an unlikely offensive duo as Quez Fisher and Jayson Barnhart really hurting the Tigers down low. The two forwards kept getting good positioning inside the paint, forcing the Tigers to double team them. When the double team came, Fisher and Barnhart were great at finding the open man on the outside or on the back door for points. 
 
Still, the Tigers refused to back down and built up a five-point lead in the late stages of the half. But the Bruins responded by gutting it out to retake the lead with under two minutes to play. With the team up three, the Tigers were forced to foul. Corey Turner and Quez Fisher hit several free throws, but the Bruins couldn't stretch the lead past a one-possession game. The Tigers found an open three-point look but the shot missed and was rebounded by Jayson Barnhart who was immediately fouled. Barnhart missed both of his free throws which would have sealed the game. The Tigers tried one last desperation heave which hit the rim but didn't fall as the Bruins fans rushed the court to celebrate the program's first region title.  

"The best part about this is what we're not done," Coach Ring said. "That's what we told our guys. We now have the opportunity to get back to work next week to prepare for nationals. But for now, we're going to celebrate!" 

Freshman guard Nate Ellenwood had another strong all-around game for the team with 8 points 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Dustin Killough led the Bruins in scoring with 14 points while Jayson Barnhart finished with 12 and Justin Matthews and Quez Fisher each scored 10 in the win. 

The team will now await the results from the other regional tournaments around the country before final seeding is determined for the NCCAA DII National Tournament. Stay tuned to bjubruins.com for national tournament information.