Heartland Conference

TULSA -- UA Fort Smith claimed the 2017 Heartland Conference Championships Tournament title for the first time in history avenging last year’s tournament final loss with a 68-59 win over Dallas Baptist University.

DBU came out of the gates fast as Heartland Freshman of the Year Julian Miranda hit a pair of threes in the first 90 seconds to give the Patriots a 6-2 advantage.

From that point on it was a largely UAFS dominated affair as the Lions used their trademarked balanced attack with four players in double digits including the tournament’s most valuable player Seth Youngblood who led all scorers with 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Ladarius Coleman had another big game for the Lions pouring in 16 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Alex Cooper and DaVaunta Thomas also registered double-digit points with 12 and 11.

Junior Brett Jolly was a rock in the middle of the UAFS defense holding First Team All-Conference forward Patrick Burke to 1-of-7 from the floor for just two points in the game. As a team the Lions held Dallas Baptist University to just 32.8-percent from the floor and only 24.2 percent from three on 33 Patriot attempts.

Dallas Baptist was led by Miranda who scored over 33 percent of the team’s points finishing the game with 20 points. Amari Bryant finished with 17 as he and Miranda were the only two Patriots to hit double digits.

2017 HEARTLAND MEN’S BASKSTBALL ALL-TOURNAMENT
Yanni Wetzell - St. Mary’s
Tyler Rogers - Lubbock Christian
Julian Miranda - Dallas Baptist
Brett Jolly - UA Fort Smith
Ladarius Coleman - UA Fort Smith
MVP: Seth Youngblood - UA Fort Smith