There Are No Surprises in the NAIA District 3 Playoffs

The final four teams that will pair off in tonight’s semifinals of the NAIA District 3 playoffs at Occidental College in Glendale didn’t particularly come as a surprise. In fact, they are the district’s top four seeds.

SCC (25-4 overall, 9-2 conference) and Westmont (23-5, 10-2) will play the first game at 6 p.m. Biola (27-3, 10-2) and Point Loma-Nazarene (24-7, 8-3) will play the second game at 8 p.m. The winners will advance to the NAIA District 3 final at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Occidental.

SCC, the second-seeded team in the playoffs, won the Southern Division title with an 85-61 victory over fourth-seeded Point Loma last month. Top-seeded Biola and third-seeded Westmont tied for the Northern Division title with 10-2 records, but Biola was given the top conference honor because it had a better overall record.

SCC has not defeated Westmont since 1976. Last year, Westmont defeated SCC in the NAIA District 3 final and advanced the NAIA national tournament in Kansas City. When the teams met in January, Westmont, the No. 14 NAIA team in the nation, handed SCC its only loss at home this season, 85-74.

But Vanguard Coach Bill Reynolds, the NAIA District 3 Coach of the Year, thinks SCC will defeat its long-time nemesis tonight.

“I think we can win if we played the way we played against Fresno Pacific,” Reynolds said, referring to SCC’s 115-82 victory. “Although we lost to them earlier this season, the 85-74 score doesn’t reflect the whole story. The game was lost in the last two minutes when we just froze and couldn’t score. I think we can play a full 40 minutes tonight.”

SCC, the No. 1 offensive team in the district, and Biola, a perennial NAIA District 3 power, are the favorites going into tonight’s semifinals.