WATERTOWN, Wis. -- The Sabercats Men's Basketball Team peaked when it mattered most in the 2024-25 season, which was disappointing in the wins column but was full of competitive moments, especially at the end of the season, as the Sabercats pushed past Emmaus in the opening round of the NCCAA Midwest Region Tournament before falling in dramatic fashion to Great Lakes Christian, who have been a mainstay in the NCCAA Top 10 and a dominant force in the Midwest Region.
The squad was comprised of 16 student-athletes, and 6 of those men transferred in from other schools, making the squad a composite group for the 2024-25 campaign.
Maranatha started the season with a difficult schedule and a winless streak of five games. But they bucked the trend with a big NCCAA rivalry win at Faith Baptist Bible College. After a sweep of Moody in a 2-game series, the team approached NCCAA Regionals as the #5 seed, taking down the fourth-ranked Emmaus Bible College Eagles. A tight loss to Great Lakes Christian ended the season in the semifinal, as the Sabercats saw their season end with a 4-22 record.
"Our season had great expectations and hopes, and some of those things didn't come to fruition," said Head Coach Rob Fuller at tonight's winter/spring awards ceremony on the MBU campus. "We'll remember several of our wins, like our win at Faith in November and then finally beating Emmaus at the end of the season - you always want a postseason win and it was fun to get one when it really counted. The guys never quit, and we played our best basketball at the end of the season, and we even gave Great Lakes all that they could handle for the majority of the semifinal game. We believed we could win and I do believe it was possible.
"If we had a sixth-man award, we would give it to the fans of MBU. We have one of the best gameday environments of all the NCCAA and NCAA DIII schools that we play. Thank you to the fans that supported us."
SCHEDULE | ROSTER | STATS | ALL-TIME RECORDS
AWARDS
Most Improved: David Gingery
Freshman of the Year: James Hawley
Coach's Award: Joe Shank
MVP: Chris Orsello
Awards from the NCCAA National Office were as follows:
NCCAA All-Region - Will Schultz (2nd Team), Brayden Cox (Honorable Mention)
NCCAA Scholar-Athlete - Brayden Cox, Jonathan Fuller, Chris Orsello, Ben Price
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STATS
The following student-athletes led the team in these categories:
Points/points per game: Will Schultz (403/15.5)
Rebounds/rebounds per game: Grant Brock (165/6.9)
Assists: Chris Orsello (61)
Steals: James Hawley (26)
Blocks: Will Schultz (30)
