Several former Louisville-area high school basketball standouts are looking to bring the men’s and women’s NAIA Division I national titles back to their home state this week.
The sixth-seeded Campbellsville men’s basketball team (25-10) faces Mid-America Christian of Oklahoma (26-9) in the NAIA semifinals at 6 p.m. Monday, and top-seeded Georgetown College (31-3), with three players from Louisville, faces No. 3 MidAmerica Nazarene of Kansas (28-8) at 8 p.m. in Kansas City, Missouri. The winners will play for the title at 7:02 p.m. Tuesday with the game broadcast at ESPN3.com.
The Georgetown men’s team sports a roster than includes 10 athletes who call Kentucky home, including 6-foot-6 senior guard/forward Tony Kimbro Jr. out of Jeffersontown and Manual, 6-8 senior forward Deondre McWhorter out of Moore and 6-7 freshman forward Chris Coffey out of Seneca.
Kimbro has 27 points and 20 rebounds through three tournament games, McWhorter has 54 points and 25 rebounds, and Coffey has eight points and three rebounds.
Campbellsville’s roster includes 6-7 junior Elliott Young, a Bullitt East product who is averaging 8.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
A pair of former Louisville high school standouts are looking to bring a women’s title back to their home state, too, as sixth-seeded Pikeville enters the semifinals with a roster that includes 5-7 sophomore guard Aundrea Matchen out of Ballard and 6-0 sophomore forward/center Dinyell Calvert out of Western.
In the women’s semifinals, Pikeville (26-8) faces MidAmerican Nazarene (30-5) out of Kansas at 8 p.m. Monday in Independence, Missouri. On the other side of the bracket, it’s an all-Kansas affair with No. 5 Benedictine (29-6) facing No. 6 Baker (27-8) at 6 p.m. Monday. The winners advance to play for the title at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday with the game broadcast on ESPN3.com.
Through three NAIA tournament games, Matchen has 41 points, including a team-best 20 in a 77-57 drubbing of No. 2 Vanguard of California, and 20 rebounds). Matchen leads Pikeville on the season, too, in points with 15.4 per game. Calvert has 15 points and 14 rebounds through three tournament games and is averaging 7.3 points per game this season.