The MAC Championships were held February 27 at Eastern University. Two fan buses full of Hood students traveled to the game to cheer the Blazers on.
In a tight game, the Blazers pulled ahead with just under a minute left. They hung onto that lead and won the day with a 75-71 game winner.
Mason Wang led the Blazers scoring 26 points. He also received the MAC Commonwealth Championship MVP.
This win gives the Blazers an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Hood will find out their next opponent on Monday, Feb. 28.
The Wang twins, Mason and Evan, came back and used their extra COVID year for one last run at the conference playoffs with the Blazers.
These two have led the team all year long and their hard work paid off. Mason is the conference’s leading scorer at 22.8 points per game and Evan is seventh with 14.5 a game, while he also leads the league in assist and turnover ratio.
The Blazers came into the conference tournament with a 17-6 overall record and 14-2 in the MAC, which is the best conference record in program history.
Eastern also had a 14-2 conference record so the two teams shared the title of regular season champions. The MAC only used the tiebreaker to determine seeding for the conference tournament. Eastern became the first seed and Hood, the second.
Hood hosted the seventh seed, Albright, in a quarterfinal matchup on Wednesday Feb. 23.
In a tight, back and forth game, the Blazers came out victorious with an 82-79 win.
Bryce Butler led the team scoring 20 points with Christopher Smalls following with another 16.
These two players stepped up as Albright’s game plan consisted of marking up and keeping the ball away from the Wangs.
The stadium was packed, and the student section was on their feet cheering for the Blazers as they secured their way to the semifinals.
Six seed Widener, traveled to Hood for the semifinal game on Friday Feb. 25.
Once again parents and students flocked to the stadium and Hood fans were hyped up to host such an important game.
“I think it’s great to be able to host home playoff games here at Hood. The men’s basketball program has been in the playoffs several times in the last few years, but to be seeded highly and be able to host games, it’s great to see their hard work pay off,” Assistant Director of Athletics Geoff Goyne said. “The excitement that the team has generated both in the athletic department and across the campus community has been wonderful to see. It’s also great because we have a lot of young programs in our athletic department. Seeing any of the programs succeed helps show the others where they need to achieve the same success.”
The Blazers showed out and beat Widener 90-77 to advance to the championships.
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