ST. LOUIS, Mo.- In its first year of postseason eligibility after reclassifying to Division I, the Queens University of Charlotte men’s basketball team made history after appearing as the No. 15 seed in the West Regional of the NCAA Tournament where it battled with No. 2-seed Purdue.
Suffering the 104-71 loss, head coach Grant Leonard and group gave the Boilermakers a run for their money from the jump; Purdue and Queens traded buckets to open the game with Jordan Watford cutting the Royals’ deficit to as little as three midway through the first half.
Purdue tried to pull away multiple times but with under three minutes remaining in the opening half, Maban Jabriel grabbed an offensive rebound and laid it back in to make it a five-point game. From there, the Royals would get outscored 69-41 through the end of the game while the Boilermakers won the battle on the boards 41-19.
Watford and Nasir Mann led Queens in scoring with 10 points each while Chris Ashby and Carson Schwieger both added in eight points each.
Queens claimed its first ASUN Championship title after taking down top-seeded Central Arkansas in overtime to earn an automatic bid to the Big Dance. The Royals became the fourth school in NCAA history, joining North Dakota State, UC San Diego, and Northern Kentucky, to make the NCAA Tournament in their first season eligible.
About the Atlantic Sun Conference
The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN), founded in 1978, is an NCAA Division I conference sponsoring twenty-two (22) sports and championships. Composed of twelve (12) destination-based institutions spread throughout the southeastern United States, ASUN members include Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, Tenn.), Bellarmine University (Louisville, Ky.), the University of Central Arkansas (Conway, Ark.), Eastern Kentucky University (Richmond, Ky.), Florida Gulf Coast University (Fort Myers, Fla.), Jacksonville University (Fla.), Lipscomb University (Nashville, Tenn.), the University of North Alabama (Florence, Ala.), the University of North Florida (Jacksonville, Fla.), Queens University of Charlotte (Charlotte, N.C.), Stetson University (DeLand, Fla.), and the University of West Georgia (Carrollton, Ga.).