Final Day 1 scores from the annual NAIA basketball tourney at KC’s Municipal Auditorium

The NAIA Division I men’s basketball tournament got underway Monday with Sweet 16 games at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.

In the opening contest of the KC portion of the annual tourney, which included earlier-round games at sites around the country, Tougaloo of Mississippi (31-1) beat Florida’s St. Thomas 74-68.

St. Thomas (26-8) led 35-32 at halftime, but a strong second half by the Bulldogs ensured Tougaloo’s passage to the next round. Cameron Copeland came off the bench to score 20 points for Tougaloo, with DeArius Henyard added 14 and Antonio Patterson 12. D’Andre Johnson led St. Thomas with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

The second game of the day was a blowout, with College of Idaho (33-1) trouncing LSU-Shreveport (26-8) by a score of 98-50. Charles Elzie led all scorers with 25 points for the school from Caldwell, Idaho; teammate Samaje Morgan added 12, Drew Wyman 11 and Tyler Robinett 10.

Jalen Brooks was the only LSU-Shreveport player in double figures, with 18, and College of Idaho outrebounded Shreveport 49 to 33.

In the third game of the afternoon, Ottawa University of Arizona — located in the Royals’ spring training home of Surprise — beat Southeastern of Florida 79-71. Riley Minix led all scorers with 28 points and 12 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to fend off OUAZ, which got even scoring from Keshawn Bruner (17 points), Alex Villi (15), Josiah De’laCerda (14), Devin Collins (11) and Kolten Hitt (10).

The final game Sweet 16 game Monday night featured William Penn of Oskaloosa, Iowa vs. Montana Tech, and it was every bit a thriller. Regulation wasn’t enough to decide it, in fact, so the teams went to overtime knotted at 71.

They traded leads throughout the extra session with Montana Tech (29-4) eventually prevailing by a point, 79-78.

The top-seeded Statesmen will no about wince about this one for a while. They led Montana Tech by nine, 33-26, at halftime. But the Orediggers got 19 points from Michael Ure, 17 from Asa Williams, 16 from Hayden Diekhans and 14 from Camdyn Larance in overcoming the deficit.

Eddie Daley led William Penn (30-4) with 21 points and 12 rebounds; CJ Washington added 11 and Muneer Newton 10 points with 12 rebounds.

Tuesday’s lineup of Sweet 16 games includes Georgetown (Kentucky) vs. Langston (Oklahoma), Freed-Hardeman (Tennessee) vs. Grace (Indiana), Jamestown (North Dakota) vs. Indiana Tech, and Morningside (Iowa) vs. Arizona Christian.

The tournament’s Round of 8 is Wednesday, with the semifinals scheduled for Friday and championship game Saturday (on ESPN3).

The NAIA tournament is steeped in history. Basketball inventor James Naismith, along with hoops hall of famer and Baker University athletic director Emil Liston and entrepreneur Frank Cramer, saw the need for a postseason college basketball tournament nearly 100 years ago.

The first event tipped off in 1937, making it college basketball’s longest continuously running championship. It’s been contested here in Kansas City for more than a half-century.

The Star’s Blair Kerkhoff contributed to this report.