Findlay, Ohio – The University of Findlay men's basketball team, ranked no. 15 in the country, suffered defeat in the opening round of the 2025 Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Championship Tournament on Tuesday, March 4 in Croy Gymnasium. With a win guaranteeing home court for the remainder of the tournament, the top-seeded Oilers fell to the number eight seed, the Cedarville Yellow Jackets, by a score of 67-65. Tonight's result gives Findlay a record of 24-5 on the year while Cedarville, which moves on to the semifinals, improves to 13-15 overall.
CU will now play Thomas More University in the semis at the three seed, Hillsdale College, which defeated Ashland University 76-59.
For a visiting team playing in front of a hostile crowd that has not seen a tournament game at home in four years, Cedarville, which defeated the Oilers in Croy a month ago, came out of the gates strong, scoring the first seven points of the game.
Findlay rallied with seven points of their own to pull even, but could not take a lead. That theme would continue throughout the game on Tuesday night with the Oilers pulling even at 21-21, 24-24, and 44-44.
Cedarville led by eight with just under three minutes to play in the game at 66-58, but seven straight points from Findlay pulled the home team to within one at 66-65. The final three points of that run came when junior Mekhi Elmore was fouled on a three-point try and converted his trio of attempts.
The Oilers had a possession with 25 seconds to play, trailing by one, but Cedarville played stingy defense, forcing a shot clock violation with ten seconds to play.
After a pair of fouls, CU's Anthony Ruffolo made the front end of a one-and-one, but missed the second. The ball was rebounded by Elmore who drove the length of the floor and had an attempt at the rim with three seconds, but it bounded away. Findlay's last gasp came after a travel by Cedarville's Kyle Thomas, a long two-point try at the buzzer. The shot was no good, giving the Yellow Jackets the upset, the second consecutive season in which the top seed in the tournament went down in the quarterfinal.
The Oilers shot 25-of-65 (39%) including 6-of-25 (24%) from three-point range.
Elmore led the way with 19 points while junior Max Roth scored 14 and sophomore Anthony Johnson had 11 to go along with six rebounds. Freshman Steele Meister was the leader on the glass with seven boards.
Findlay's season now is in the hands of the NCAA selection committee which will announce its' selections for the Division II Tournament on Sunday night.
