Defending champion Wesleyan returns to NAIA tourney but quickly is shown the door

Hoping to repeat the joy of last season's storybook run to the NAIA basketball title, Texas Wesleyan instead felt a cold slap of reality Thursday night in a 70-61 first-round loss to Iowa's Graceland University in Kansas City.

The two-time national champion Rams (22-11 and ranked 15th) were eliminated on an opening night that saw two of the tournament's four No. 1 seeds also bumped off.

The Graceland Yellowjackets (25-10 and ranked 24th) got out of the gate fast, building their 6-0 start to an 11-3 advantage less than six minutes into the game, and then to a 23-12 lead with six minutes left in the half.

Wesleyan struggled with its shooting early on, especially leading scorer Brandon Jenkins, who missed his first five shots as the Rams made just one of their first 11. But Jenkins would heat up and score the final 11 points of the half to tie the game at 23.

Unfortunately for Texas Wesleyan, that would be as good as it gets.

After Graceland's horrible first half shooting exhibition (9 of 33 for 27 percent), they also warmed up.

Graceland dashed to a 30-25 lead two minutes into the second half, and the teams traded baskets before a Jenkins bucket at the 15:31 mark pulled TWU within 35-31. But Graceland, the Heart of America Athletic Conference champions, went on a 9-0 spree the next three minutes and never let the Rams closer than eight the rest of the game.

After his humbling start, the 6-foot-4 Jenkins, a senior from Chicago, finished with a game-high 30 points on 11-of-23 shooting and four 3-pointers. Juwan Jones, a 6-foot guard from Linden, N.J., was Wesleyan's only other double-figure scorer, contributing 15 points and five rebounds.

Graceland was led by Jeremy Deemer with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting. By virtue of their seventh win in a row, the Yellowjackets advance to Friday's second-round against eighth-seed Langston, which beat second-ranked and No. 1 seed Pikeville (Ky.) 63-61.

This story was originally published March 15, 2018 at 8:52 PM with the headline "Defending champion Wesleyan returns to NAIA tourney but quickly is shown the door."