By Chris Parker, junior

The Friends University men’s basketball team ended its season in the National Tournament on Wednesday, March 10, with a 77-67 loss to Bethel (Ind.) in the first round of the tournament.

Even with the early exit, this was still one of the top Falcon basketball teams to play in head coach Dale Faber’s tenure.

“Record-wise, yes (it is the best team),” Faber said.

Friends finished with a 25-7 record on the season. The Falcons earned the automatic bid by winning the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament. They accomplished that by taking each tournament game one at a time.

“The worst thing we can do in the conference tournament or the national tournament is hop in the time machine and go into the future,” Faber said in an interview before the conference tournament. “These guys are much better working in the present.”

That is exactly what the Falcons did -- work in the present. Friends won its three games in the tournament over Bethel, Southwestern and Bethany by an average of 9.7 points per game.

The 82-75 win over Bethany for the championship was made sweeter as it avenged the only conference home loss the Falcons had on the season.

In the loss to Bethel (Ind.) to finish the season, Friends was up by double digits at one point in the game but struggled to handle the Bethel press in the second half and allowed the lead to evaporate.

Even though the Falcons lost, Chris Jackson gives them hope for next season as the junior dropped 30 points in the loss. Romar Jones, a senior, closed out his career at Friends with a solid 15-point effort.

Jackson and Jones finished second and fifth in the conference in scoring average with averages of 18.29 points per game and 17.17 points per game respectively.