CHANDLER, Ariz. – Just over four months ago, the Corban University Men's Basketball program began their first regular season under first year head coach Wayne Mendezona and suffered a double-digit road loss to then No. 2-ranked Arizona Christian University. Since then, the Warriors have fought tooth and nail for everything they've earned and more, with an opportunity later today to avenge their season-opener loss to the Firestorm in the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round at the Coyote Center in Chandler, Arizona.
"Our team has high expectations heading into this weekend," shared Mendezona when asked to discuss his first national tournament appearance. "We believe and know that we are playing our best basketball of the season right now and it couldn't come at a better time. We are embracing this challenge and confronting it with an expectant and collective mindset. Our team's unity, focus, and attention to detail is at an all-time high. We want to play tomorrow true to our nature, which is a junkyard dog mentality that plays desperate and disruptive individually and in our team defense. We believe that our team possesses the qualities to defend and play against a variety of different types of teams, and we can adapt to different personnel and impose our collective defensive mindset on them. We are excited for this opportunity, and our guys are poised and prepared to play for the glory of God and to give everything they have to come out on the winning side."
The Firestorm (22-7) claimed the 87-75 victory over the No. 15-seeded Navy and Gold (17-14) to open the 2025-26 regular season slate at the ACU Events Center, yet won't have the opportunity to do so a second time this year as No. 12-ranked and No. 2-seeded Arizona Christian has been tasked with hosting their Opening Round about forty-five minutes southeast of their home court at the Coyote Center on the campus of Chandler-Gilbert Community College. In addition to hosting the Warriors, No. 7-seeded Wayland Baptist University and No. 10-seeded Carroll College will match up directly following the ACU-CRB rematch with the winner of each contest battling for a spot in the national tourney final site.
Corban men's basketball claimed the second of two automatic bids into the 2026 NAIA National Tournament following an improbable run through the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Tournament, where they entered as the No. 7-overall seed among the eight qualifiers and proceeded to march through three-straight road game environments to secure the conference crown. Their three-game postseason winning streak includes road wins over RV Eastern Oregon University, their I-5 rivals of Bushnell University, and No. 23-ranked Lewis-Clark State College.
Representing a completely different team than the first time they clashed with ACU, the Warriors will look to continue their defensive proficiency against one of the NAIA's most efficient offenses, as the Firestorm average nearly 80 points per game while shooting over 45% from the floor and exactly one of every three-point shots find the bottom of the basket. While they can struggle in maintaining possession with over 14 turnovers per game, Arizona Christian outrebounds their opponents by nearly a ten-board margin (39.1 vs 30.3) and are creative in drawing nearly 20 free throw attempts per contest.
Maintaining ACU guards Ese Onakpoma (16.0 ppg) and Shaud Bradley (13.9 ppg) will prove to be a difficult task for the Corban front court, as the duo represents the only student-athletes aboard the host squad that averages double-digit scoring while converting at an efficient 55.2% and 45.0% success rate from the floor, respectively. Forward Jay Lee leads the Firestorm in rebounding with over eight boards per game and is one of ACU players with over 25 blocks on the year, joining Onakpoma in that regard.
The other half of the Chandler bracket amidst the Naismith quadrant in the 2026 NAIA National Tournament will feature the Pioneers (23-7) and Fighting Saints (20-9) battling for a spot in the second round matchup on Saturday night, with both having earned their way into the national field as regular season conference runners-up in the Frontier Conference and Southern Athletic Conference. While they share automatic bid similarities, the two programs couldn't be further from the same in style of play, as Pioneers lockdown their opponents on the offensive end by allowing under 70 points per game, while the Fighting Saints attempt to outscore their adversaries on the scoreboard where they average over 85 points on a daily basis.
Carroll starting guard Isaiah Crane is one of the most proficient scorers in the national tournament, as he drops nearly 20 points per game and has shot almost twice as many attempts as the next Saint on the roster despite dishing out a team-best 82 assists. Meanwhile, Wayland Baptist are represented by their own 19 ppg scorer in guard Quenton Coleman, who splashed 84 three-pointers to date at a 38.7% shooting clip while dishing out a team-high 80 dimes. The two All-American contending point guards will be dualling at 7pm directly after the Warriors attempt to hand ACU only their eighth loss of the season and end their postseason run just one game into the national tourney.
Tickets for this weekend's opening round site in Chandler can be purchased ahead of time by clicking HERE, while those wishing to watch the Warriors' opening round matchup for free can do so by clicking HERE. Live stats will also be made available for Corban's opening round contest for free by clicking HERE.
The winner of this weekend's opening round four-team tourney will earn one of 16 spots available at the NAIA National Tournament Final Site, which is scheduled to begin on March 19th in Kansas City, Missouri at the Municipal Auditorium. Every contest of the 2026 NAIA National Tournament can be viewed live for free on the Urban Edge Network.
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