Former 1,000 Point Scorer On Stonehill’s Third Elite Eight Squad in 10 Years
FRISCO, TX–For the third time in the last 10 years, Stonehill College, known to have many famous GMC alumni, will be playing in the NCAA D2 Elite Eight, which convenes at Dr. Pepper Arena on March 23, and will continue on March 24th, and culminate on March 26th with the Division 2 National Championship. The latest former GMC standout at Stonehill is former Monroe and St. Joseph’s hoops standout, Dan Brix, who is enjoying the ride.
Brix played an average of 11 minutes per game and made some minor contributions to the Skyhawks run through the East Region field, which consisted of victories over Northeast-10 Conference rivals, Bentley, Southern New Hampshire, and Saint Anselm’s College. However, Brix is sky high as his team has reached the pinnacle of NCAA Division 2 College Basketball. Stonehill, the fifth seed, will play in the Elite Eight round against powerhouse program, West Liberty University of West Virginia on March 23rd at 3:30 PM. The winner will play the winner of the contest between top seeded Lincoln Memorial and 8th seeded Barry.
Ironically, Stonehill lost to Bentley in the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament semifinals on March 2nd (89-84). The two clashed again in the East Region’s opening round at Holy Family University, the home of another GMC alum, Marvin Crawford of J.P. Stevens. The Tigers, were the top seed in the regional, but lost to Southern New Hampshire in their opening round game (88-80). Stonehill enters the Elite Eight with a 24-8 record. Brix has played in 27 of the 32 games including 24 starts. He has averaged 24.2 minutes, 5.7 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 0.8 steals per game while only committing 1.8 turnovers per game, and compiling a 1.2 assist to turnover ratio.
Brix has made 48 of 113 attempts for a 42.5 field goal percentage. He also sank 59 of 79 attempts from the charity stripe for a 74.7 free throw percentage. GMC Hoops happened to see Brix in action in a non-conference game against Bloomfield College on December 20th. The site saw the last 15 minutes of action, and although Brix didn’t score during his two stints in that span, he played very well. He was very unselfish, showed great court awareness, and played a solid team game. He ended up with 7 points in 25 minutes on 3 of 5 shooting from the floor while also collecting 6 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal. View the video highlights from the last 15 minutes of action in the game between Stonehill and Bloomfield College.
As mentioned earlier, this is Stonehill’s third trip the NCAA D2 Elite EIght in the past 10 years. The previous two times were in 2006 and 2012. Both times, the Skyhawks reached the Final Four in 2012. In 2006, Stonehill defeated Tarleton State in the Elite Eight Round before losing to eventual national champion, Winona State of Minnesota. Current head coach, Chris Kraus played on that team along with former Colonia standout, Nick Smith. Six years later, in 2012, Stonehill defeated West Liberty in the Elite Eight before losing to eventual national champion, Western Washington in the national semifinal. West Liberty is looking to make its fourth trip to the NCAA D2 Final Four in the past five years.
Former GMC standouts that went on to play at Stonehill include Colonia’s Nick Smith, Monroe’s A.J. Rudowitz, and Cardinal McCarrick’s Vince Rosario. Former South Plainfield assistant coach, and former owner of the Basketball Shooting Academy, Mike Allocco, also played at Stonehill before playing professionally with the Washington Bullets.