KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Dylan Phillip scored a game-high 24 points and drained three 3-pointers, leading Oklahoma Wesleyan University to an 84-78 upset win over Freed-Hardeman University (Tenn.) in the Fab Four of the 2025 NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship at Municipal Auditorium in Downtown Kansas City.
Oklahoma Wesleyan (28-7) didn’t trail in the second half, earning its place in the 2025 NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship Game with nine 3-point makes as an offense, and a defense that dialed up 15 Freed-Hardeman turnovers, eight in the second half.
The Lions had a pair of 22-point scorers – Peyton Law and Jordan Stephens – as Law added a double-double with 10 rebounds, but Derrick Talton, Jr., added 23 and a game-high five assists for the Eagles, who also had 11 points from Yashi McKenzie and eight rebounds from Jordan Lietzke.
OKWU led by a basket at halftime, but by the time five minutes had rolled off the clock in the second, the Eagles were in front by nine, getting a fastbreak 3-pointer from Phillip to go up 53-44 with 15:17 to play in in the game.
The lead stretched to 14 with 10:48 to go, and again it was Phillip, knocking down his third in downtown, putting OKWU in front 65-51. Freed-Hardeman rallied to get within single digits at the 5:00 mark, but the Eagles seemed to have an answer to each FHU bucket, including back-to-back scores in or around the lane for Talton, who had the Eagles in front 74-65 with 4:08 to play.
Freed-Hardeman wasn’t able to trim it to a one-possession deficit for the remainder, ending its run in the Fab Four, and its season, at 30-6.
In the first half, Oklahoma Wesleyan used six first-half 3-pointers to keep pace with the Lions, who shot 56.5 percent in the opening 20 minutes. OKWU hit a pair of those key triples early and led 11-7 inside 15:00, but FHU wiped the lead away, regaining a one-point advantage with 12:09 in the half when Gerardo Lane laid the ball over the front of the rim to make it 14-13.
The lead went back-and-forth over the next five minutes, but a 3-pointer by FHU’s Riley McClaran made it 25-22, followed by a block by Lane that led to a lay-up on the other end from Peyton Law to extend a five-point Freed-Hardeman lead.
Law struck again in the paint with 6:11 in the half, and Freed-Hardeman found itself up 31-24, but OKWU used back-to-back triples by Yashi McKenzie and Ethan Williams to pull even at 34-34, with 2:38 left in the first, before taking a 42-40 lead to intermission.
Tuesday’s championship game between the Eagles and the Yotes, of the College of Idaho, a No. 1 seed in the tournament, will air live on UEN and the NAIA Network. Broadcast links can be found at www.naia.org/watch, and tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.