News Release

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio — Despite a season-high 27 points from senior guard Nate Stahl, Capital University's men's basketball team saw its season come to a close with a 71-63 loss to the University of Texas-Dallas Friday in the sectional round of the NCAA Division III Championships in University Heights, Ohio.

The Crusaders, ranked No. 13, conclude the year with a record of 26-5, setting the program mark for wins in a season.

Capital trailed 53-44 with 10:38 to play before embarking on a 12-0 run over the next 3:14. Senior guard Ryan Wood sank a pair of free throws, and senior forward Ross Niekamp followed with a three-pointer from the left corner to cut the deficit to 52-49.

Wood hit two more threes during the stretch, one from each corner, as Capital went ahead 56-53 at the 7:24 mark.

The Crusaders had a chance to extend their lead, but a pair of turnovers led to four straight points for the No. 22 Comets, who went ahead 57-56. Stahl hit another three - his seventh of the contest, which tied a school single-game record - to briefly put Capital back in front at 59-57 with six minutes to play, but UT-Dallas scored seven unanswered points over the next minute and led 64-59 with five minutes left.

Two free throws each from sophomore guard D.J. Frazier and Niekamp brought the Crusaders to within one at 64-63, but the Crusaders missed their final eight shots from the floor after that point as the Comets closed with another 7-0 run.

Turnovers proved to be the difference, as Capital had 22 giveaways, which led to 25 Comet points. Capital also hit just 8-of-14 (57.1 percent) of its free throw attempts.

"They did a good job trapping us with their 1-3-1 zone," said Capital head coach Damon Goodwin. "We didn't attack it the way we needed to and that haunted us the whole game."

Wood was the only other double-figure scorer for Capital, as he had 12 points. Senior forward Quintin Mitchell came off the bench to score nine points and Stahl grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to go along with his 27 points, which came on 10-of-15 shooting (7-of-10 from three-point range).

Stahl hit a pair of three-pointers to start the scoring in the first half. He had the team's first eight tallies, and 11 of the first 13. UT-Dallas led 21-18 when Frazier found Mitchell for an alley-oop slam from a step inside halfcourt.

Stahl followed with a three-pointer that put the Crusaders in front at 25-23, then hit another three-pointer that gave the Crusaders a 29-26 advantage. Stahl hit his first six shots and scored 16 points in the half as Capital took a 30-28 lead into the locker room.

Wood and Stahl end their careers amongst the all-time leading scorers in school history. Wood's 1,195 points rank him 19th in program history, while Stahl's 1,596 points puts him in second behind Mike Stumpf, who scored 1,677 points between 1969-73.