Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the 1999-00 Embry-Riddle Men's Basketball National Championship



March 14, 2000 will forever be remembered and cherished by the Embry-Riddle men's basketball family. 
 
It was a night and a moment over a dozen years in the making.
 
Embry-Riddle decided to begin intercollegiate athletics in 1988, turning to Ron Caylor to coach the men's basketball program. Caylor had been instrumental in bringing sports to the Daytona Beach campus, and although the Eagles went winless on the court in 1988-89 (Caylor was officially credited with three wins due to forfeits following the season), what transpired 12 years later would never have happened without his efforts.
 
Steve Ridder was hired as the first full-time men's basketball coach prior to the 1989-90 campaign, getting his first win on Jan. 31 against Florida Bible.
 
The Eagles went 4-24 in Ridder's first season, and then the greatest turnaround in NAIA history happened next. The Blue and Gold went 22-8, starting a streak of 27 consecutive winning seasons. 
 
Ridder recently reached career win No. 700 this past fall, becoming just the 24^th collegiate men's basketball coach all-time to win them all at one school. 
 
This is the story of win No. 251…
 

It was the upstart Eagles versus the Cinderella Bobcats. ERAU in just it's 12^th season of competition playing against the host team College of the Ozarks. The first-ever national tournament in Branson, Missouri was about to see just the second team from the state of Florida win a basketball national championship.
 
Tournament MVP Jason Cruse set the tone right away for the Eagles, winning the tip and making a beautiful baseline move over his right shoulder to give ERAU a 2-0 lead just 13 seconds into the game.
 
The Eagles dodged a bullet on the Bobcats' first possession as Adam Ipock, hero of the previous night's semifinal game, missed an alley-oop dunk that would have tied it. Yon Price kept ERAU's next offensive possession alive by tipping out a rebound. The ball eventually found Cruse in the corner, right in front of the Bobcat bench, where he drilled the trey to put ERAU up 5-0.
  
Leading 7-2, Cruse got his third bucket of the night to make it a 9-2 game. "He's really brutalizing the Bobcat defenders so far," color analyst Doug Elstun said of Cruse in the early going.
 
The lead would grow to 11-2 when Rothrock collected a steal and scored his first field goal of the game, but the Bobcats answered with a 5-0 run over the next minute before Price hit a massive three-pointer to stop the C of O momentum and quiet the more-than-capacity crowd.
 
"Losing the last three games of the regular season was devastating to us," Paul Yaden said. "But it forced us to play the conference tournament on the road. Little did we know then, but that would replay itself as we took on the College of the Ozarks in the national championship game. I truly believe if we hadn't been forced to play against a hostile home team crowd in the conference tournament finals, the national championship run may not have happened."
 
Harold Pierson checked in with 13 minutes to play and immediately made his presence felt, getting a great pass from Cruse after a Bobcat miss, streaking into the front court to make a layup and get fouled, completing the three-point play for a 17-7 cushion for Embry-Riddle.
 
The Eagles kept pouring it on with another Price triple around the 12-minute mark, and the Blue and Gold never relented the rest of the half, answering nearly every Bobcat make with one of its own. Heath Fabacher finished off an and-one thanks to a tremendous find from Cruse, making it 25-13 in favor of the Eagles.
 
With six and a half minutes left in the half, the Bobcats were able to trim the Eagle lead to 27-20, allowing the Keeter Gymnasium faithful to get back into the game. After a missed three, Yaden snatched a contested rebound, turned around and stuck the ball back in the basket, and a few moments later Cruse found Fabacher again with a pass from the elbow, allowing his fellow big man to finish an easy layup and suddenly the Eagles were back up double-digits, 31-20.
 
Up 35-26 in the waning moments of the first half, Price was fouled on an in-bounds pass, making both free throws before the Eagle defense stood firm once again, holding the Bobcats to an off-balance attempt at the buzzer that was well short, and ERAU took a 37-26 lead into the break.
 
Cruse was simply dominant in the opening half, finishing the first 20 minutes with 11 points, four rebounds and three assists, while Price added eight points for ERAU. Fabacher came off the bench to score seven points and grab a trio of boards in the first period.
 
Both teams came out of halftime cold, combining to miss six straight shots before Ipock scored the first bucket for the Bobcats. Mas answered with a three from the wing, pushing the lead back to a dozen. However, back-to-back triples from C of O cut the deficit in half with a little over 16 minutes left in regulation, forcing Ridder to use a timeout.
 
ERAU went right to Cruse out of the timeout and he was immediately fouled by fellow All-American Aaron Dalton. Cruse buried both free throws, extending the lead back to eight.
 
A Rothrock jumper from just inside the free throw line pushed the advantage to 44-34, but the Bobcats made a run thanks to Adam Cook. Cook scored three baskets, assisted on another and grabbed two rebounds over the next three minutes as the home team got to within one possession at 50-47 with 11 minutes to play.
 
Who did the Eagles turn to when they desperately needed a bucket? Who else? Jason Cruse.
 
Cruse got an entry pass from Rothrock and one baby hook later the Eagle lead was five.
 
Pierson's field goal with 9:43 left resulted in a seven-point lead at 54-47. The freshman started the sequence with a steal before he and Rothrock completed the give-and-go breakaway.
 
Embry-Riddle enjoyed a 58-49 lead with eight minutes on the clock, and the Bobcats had one final push left in their Cinderella story. A layup, a pair of free throws and another layup made it just a three-point game at 58-55. What happened next will be remembered by the Eagle faithful forever.
 
Following a 30-second timeout from Coach Ridder, the Eagles were hounded for their entire offensive possession and were unable to find a good look. With the ball swinging around the perimeter, Cruse momentarily lost control of the ball at the top of the key with three seconds left on the shot clock.
 
Yon Price was there.
 
The senior grabbed the loose ball, took two dribbles and launched a desperation heave from the wing as the buzzer sounded.
 
And banked it in.
 
He called bank too.
 
"Did you hear him call that!?!" exclaimed Elstun on the television broadcast. "He said 'Window!' as he was six feet in the air."
 
The shot that stunned the 4,000 in attendance, the vast majority in C of O maroon.
 
After defensive stops from both teams Rothrock made a fantastic move, going baseline and getting an easy look against a disoriented Bobcat defense, pushing the Eagle lead to 63-55 with under three minutes to play.
 
Price again came up with a huge play on the next Ozarks possession, stealing the ball for the Eagles. 
 
Cruse cemented his Tournament MVP crown with a fadeaway 20-foot baseline jumper on the resulting possession, making it once again a double-digit game, and now the Eagles had the clock on their side.
 
A Bobcat trey made it 65-58, but then Cruse found a cutting Rothrock with a behind-the-back pass with 90 seconds to go and the sophomore guard got the bucket and the foul.
 
The closest C of O got the rest of the way was at 69-63 following a three-pointer with a minute to play. The Bobcats were forced to foul and Rothrock made both his free throw shots.
 
"I remember standing at the foul line, game well in hand and Rock is shooting free throws," Mas recalls. "He sees me smiling and soaking it all in and says 'Stop. The game is not over yet.' One thing that really stands out about that team was our extreme focus."
 
Price came up with his third steal of the night with 29 seconds to go and the Eagles successfully played keep away until Price was fouled with just over 20 seconds on the clock. Price made both for a 73-63 lead.
 
Cruse put an exclamation point on his season and his Embry-Riddle career with a rejection on the next Bobcat shot, grabbing the rebound and, when he was fouled, making both to account for the 75-63 final.
 
The Eagles never trailed in the national title game.
 
Cruse finished with 23 points on 9-for-14 shooting. He added seven rebounds, six assists and two blocks, fulfilling the promise he made to Coach Ridder more than a year prior in a hotel hallway in Nampa, Idaho.
 
Rothrock had 14 points, three rebounds and three steals in the championship game, with Price having his best game of the tournament, going for 13 points, two rebounds, three assists and three steals.
 
ERAU outrebounded the Bobcats 40-32, finishing the five-game tournament run with a +41 rebounding advantage.
 
"I remember the feeling after winning the championship, and just not wanting it to end," Yaden said. "We stayed on the court well after the celebration officially ended, but none of us wanted it to be over."
 
The Eagles had reached the pinnacle and could forever call themselves National Champions.