Hastings College Men's Basketball wins first ever GPAC Tournament Championship

HASTINGS, Neb. – For the first time in program history, the Hastings College Men's Basketball team is the GPAC Tournament Champions after beating Morningside 77-61 Tuesday night at Lynn Farrell Arena. 

It was the first conference tournament title appearance for the Broncos since 1999, back when the conference was called the Nebraska–Iowa Athletic Conference. It is believed this is the first tournament win in school history.

Hastings held the conference-best Morningside offense to a season-low 61 points. The Mustangs previous low was 72 points and they came into the game averaging more than 90 points per game.

The Broncos led 41-28 at the half thanks to a Nolan Sughroue three-pointer that beat the halftime buzzer.

Hastings comfortably led all second half as Morningside never got the deficit to less than 10 points.

Reggie Thomas led the Broncos with 32 points and he recorded his seventh 30+ point performance this season.

"This feels amazing, like I don't even know how to describe it for real," said Thomas. "Shots were going in, the rim just felt bigger than it usually does. I came to the gym today and I was like 'it's gonna be a great day today."

Todd Raridon is just in his second year as Hastings Head Coach and has led them to that elusive tournament championship title.

"What this team has accomplished from where they were even last year to this year has been night and day," said Raridon. "They bought in to what we're trying to sell them and they absolutely have been fantastic."

The Broncos will now wait until the NAIA selection show Thursday Mar. 7 to find out which national tournament pod it will play in along with its opponent.

Extended highlights of the game can be found in the video player above.