Mary Baldwin's men's basketball defense held host Case Western Reserve University to a season-low 66 points, but the offense could not find the range in the Fighting Squirrels 66-51 setback Friday in a first-round NCAA Division III Championship Tournament game in Cleveland.

MBU's championship season, which ended with a senior Diego Lemus hoop in the lane to the delight of his teammates, included a 17-11 final record.  The Fighting Squirrels set team marks with 17 overall wins, 11 conference wins to finish the regular-season in first place, and the fifth NCAA Tournament appearance for MBU athletics (first for a men's team).

Case Western (22-4), one of the top-ranked teams in the country entering the tournament, was led by Colin Kahl with 20 points and Sam Trunley with 15 scores.  The Spartans advance to the second-round of the 2024 NCAA championship Saturday against Hope College. 

The Fighting Squirrels were led by sophomore Mekhi Reid with 12 points and five rebounds while junior Brett Asbury had 10 points and four boards.

MBU struggled from the field all night, hitting just 1-for-14 from three point range in the first half (4-for-27 from the game).  Overall from the field, MBU was just 18-for-61 for the game (29.5%), including just 6-for-31 in the first half (19.4%). 

The critical stretch was late in the first half, when the Fighting Squirrels had a number of good shots just not go into the hoop, leading to a seven-minute scoreless stretch.  During that run, the defense kept the visitors in the game as CWRU managed to score just 10 points.  Mary Baldwin actually scored the final three points of the half and trailed just 27-15 at the break.

The Fighting Squirrels surged in the first minute of the second half, twice cutting the deficit to just seven points - first on a Jaden Ignacio three-pointer and again 30 seconds later on Quentin Hart's layup.  The Spartans answered by scoring the next seven points and rode a lead of 15 or more points the into the second round of the tournament.