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Click here for Championship Week News and Notes/Podcast; click here for regular-season News and Notes and here for the up-to-date Survival Board (307* teams and counting)

Click here for Chad Sherwood’s Under-The-Radar Game of the Day between Arkansas-Little Rock and Appalachian State

Finally, click here for the first wave of Jon Teitel’s All-Conference Awards and click here for Joby Fortson’s updated Nitty Gritty Rankings

Our season finale of Throwback Thursday goes into the not-so-distant past of the 2011 season; what was then the Great West Conference consisted of North Dakota, South Dakota, UT-Pan American (now UT-Rio Grande Valley), Utah Valley State, Chicago State, Houston Baptist and NJIT. The tournament was played in Orem, Utah on the campus of Utah Valley State. We highlight this year not just because we at HoopsHD follow all Under-The-Radar programs, but that all 6 games were decided by a grand total of 11 points (including a double-overtime championship game). Utah Valley was the top seed in the Great West and would get the first-round bye. The first two rounds were broadcast on UVU-TV; the championship was aired on Fox College Sports.

The first matchup featured the second-seeded NJIT Highlanders and the seventh-seeded Houston Baptist Huskies. Undaunted by a 4-25 (2-10 Great West) record, the Huskies would trade leads with NJIT 12 different times during the course of the game. The game was tied 69-69 with under a minute to play; Michael Moss (who had a game-high 26 points) hit the go-ahead layup plus the and-1 to give Houston Baptist a 3-point lead with 2 seconds left to play. They immediately fouled NJIT before the Highlanders could attempt a game-tying 3; NJIT hit the first free throw before intentionally missing the 2nd shot. Jheryl Wilson got the rebound for NJIT but was unable to hit the shot that would have sent the game to overtime. Wilson led the Highlanders with 18 points; the Huskies would advance to play the North Dakota/UT-Pan American winner.

In the 3-6 matchup, #3 North Dakota would take on #6 UT-Pan American. North Dakota was able to overcome a 2nd half deficit of 7 points and took the lead for good after a basket by Troy Huff with 2:42 to play in the game. The Fighting Sioux (as UND was called back then) would extend the lead to 7 points with 1:10 to play, but a pair of late 3s by the Broncs whittled the lead down to 1 point with 7 seconds remaining in the game. After a pair of missed free throws by UND, the Broncs were unable to get off a shot on their final possession and UND would escape with a 71-70 victory. Patrick Mitchell and Troy Huff led the Fighting Sioux with 12 points apiece; Aaron Urbanus led the Broncs with 18 points in a losing effort. This set up a semifinal with North Dakota and Houston Baptist on the bottom half of the Great West bracket.

In the 4-5 nightcap, #4 South Dakota would face off against #5 Chicago State. Despite outrebounding South Dakota 52-35 and getting a 20/20 game (27 points, 21 rebounds) from senior Carl Montgomery, the Cougars were unable to pull off the upset and would lose 73-70 in overtime. Jake Thomas led the Coyotes with 20 points and 8 rebounds, and their reward was a semifinal matchup with the hometown UVU Wolverines the following day.

The first semifinal pitted North Dakota against Houston Baptist. The Huskies started off hot with a 17-6 lead, but the Fighting Sioux were able to slowly chip away en route to a 1-point deficit at halftime. Troy Huff looked like he had given North Dakota a cushion after hitting a pair of free throws to give UND a 3-point lead with 21 seconds remaining in regulation. However, Michael Moss would foul the Huskies’ Anthony Gonzalez while attempting a 3-point shot with 5 seconds to play. Gonzalez calmly hit all 3 free throws to tie the game. However, Lamar Thomas would commit a foul for Houston Baptist with under 2 seconds remaining on the clock; this time it was Patrick Mitchell’s turn to hit a pair of freebies to wrap up the game and give North Dakota a berth into the championship game. Huff led UND with 16 points and 5 rebounds; Andrew Gonzalez had 24 points to lead the Huskies.

In the second semifinal, the top-seeded Utah Valley Wolverines would face the South Dakota Coyotes. This was another back-and-forth game that was tied at 69-69 with 1:10 remaining in the 2nd half; Mitchell Bouie would hit a layup to put the Coyotes up for good. The Wolverines would cut the lead to 1 with a free throw; after a miss by the Coyotes’ Louie Krogman with 13 seconds remaining, Utah Valley was unable to get off a shot before committing a critical turnover with 5 seconds left in the game. South Dakota hit one more free throw to ice the game and set up a championship game with their neighbor North Dakota. Jake Thomas led the Coyotes with 21 points and 7 rebounds; Ben Aird had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Wolverines.

However, since the Great West Conference had not yet qualified for an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, both North Dakota and South Dakota were playing for a berth in the CIT Tournament on the Fox College Sports network. South Dakota led by as many as 10 points in the 1st half, but North Dakota would go on a run of their own and take a 48-42 lead following a Patrick Mitchell 3-pointer with 1:45 left in regulation. Undaunted, South Dakota would chip the lead down to 2 and hit what could have been an and-1 with 35 seconds remaining. Kendall Cutler was unable to hit the go-ahead free throw for the Coyotes and the game went into overtime. North Dakota had control for much of the first overtime (and led by as many as 8 points), but the Coyotes’ Louie Krogman hit a game-tying 3 at the buzzer that bounced multiple times before falling in and sent the game to a second overtime. This time, South Dakota was able to get a 4-pt lead with 15 seconds remaining in the 2nd OT. After a layup by Jamal Webb and a turnover by the Coyotes, Jake Thomas would hit a game-winning 3 to give North Dakota the title and a berth into the 2011 CIT that season. You can click here for highlights of the championship game.

However, the Great West was ultimately doomed to failure without the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. South Dakota would move to the Summit League for the 2011-12 season and North Dakota defected to the Big Sky for the 2012-13 season. Chicago State won the last-ever Great West Championship in 2013; Houston Baptist would join the Southland and UT-Pan American, Utah Valley and Chicago State all joined the WAC for the following year. NJIT would remain independent for 2 seasons before joining the Atlantic Sun in the 2015-16 season.