STEUBENVILLE, Ohio—The first ever NCAA Division III Provisional Tournament wrapped up Saturday afternoon with the No. 1 Birmingham Southern College Panthers taking the championship game by a score of 69-60 over No. 3 Covenant College Scots. In the consolation game, the No. 2 Berry College Vikings took down the host No. 4 Franciscan University Barons 73-62.

In the consolation game, the Barons continued to struggle shooting from the floor, hitting only 23 percent and 14 percent from the 3-point range. This was certainly not the case for the Berry Vikings as they shot 46 percent from the field and 50 percent from three.

After a three-pointer from Connor Flanagan—his last game for the Barons—to get the scoring started, Franciscan gave up 14 unanswered points. The run ended with a three-pointer by Frank Murray, and the Barons collected themselves to begin chipping away at the lead. They were within four at the 7:00 mark in the first half, but the Vikings scored seven straight points to end the half with a 13-point lead.

Flanagan made his last twenty minutes as a Baron count, collecting 20 of his game-high 23 points in the second half. "I was really happy for Connor to come out of his slump in the second half," Baron head coach Sean Donovan said. "I thought we put ourselves in the best position to win, I'm proud of the guys' fight."

Fight they did. The Barons battled back from a 17-point deficit midway through the second half, narrowing the Viking lead to just six with under 6:00 to go. But in that short time span the Barons committed four turnovers, letting the Vikings capitalize on their way to a 73-62 victory.

Tim Miles was the leading contributor with 22 points and 11 rebounds on the night. Jonathan Abrams pitched in with 11. Senior Baron Thomas Kleinschnitz saved one of his best all-around performances on the year for his last as he dropped 20 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. Coach Donovan also mentioned the defensive play of senior Nate Stanton and Murray. "Their big boys inside made the difference," Donovan noted, "but Nate [Stanton] did a tremendous job [on defense] underneath the basket. [Berry's Tim] Mills is a fantastic player, and I thought Frank [Murray] did a great job containing him."

The Barons end the year with a 4-21 overall record, and look forward to full NCAA membership next season after four years of provisional status. Berry improved to 16-11 on the year; the Vikings have two more years of provisional play before reaching full membership.

The championship matchup featured the No. 1 Birmingham Southern Panthers taking down the No. 3 Covenant College Scots, 69-60.

The Panthers and Scots already met up once during regular season play, and according to Covenant head coach Kyle Taylor, both games were, "eerily similar". When the two teams faced off earlier this year, the final score of that game was also 69-60 in favor of the Panthers.

The game was close throughout, with Covenant having a small lead until halfway through the first half. The Panthers used four 3-pointers and some key free-throws in the last ten minutes of the first half to hold a 39-29 point lead by halftime.

"It was a little bit of a grind," Panther head coach Mitch Cole said. "But, our kids are tough and resilient."

The Panthers built up a lead of as much as 15 in the second half, but Kyle Taylor's squad refused to go down without a fight. "We know that they are a very good team, very deep, and their not going to make many mistakes or miss many shots. But all year our kids played hard, competed in every game, and that's what we did tonight. I'm proud of my guys' heart," he said.

But that wasn't enough to take down the top seed in the tournament as the Panthers top three scorers, Jasen Jonus, Patrick Price, and Zac Richards paced the way with 13 apiece to take down the Scots, 69-60. "Those guys stepped up and hit some big shots for us at key moments. They've been very good all year," said Coach Cole.

Covenant's Callum Sears lead all scorers with 17 on the day and Sam Bowman added 12 points and seven boards before fouling out late in the second half.

The Panthers, who will have full NCAA membership status next year, improve to 23-3 on the season and the Scots, who have two more years of provisional status, fall to 6-21.

TOURNAMENT AWARDS:

Most Valuable Player:

Patrick Price, Birmingham Southern

All-Tournament Team:

Thomas Kleinschnitz, Franciscan

Connor Flanagan, Franciscan

Callum Sears, Covenant

Jasen Jonus, Birmingham Southern

Tim Miles, Berry