NJCAA D2 National Championships Bracket '17 NJCAA D3 National Championships Bracket '17
Hutchinson wins first championship since 1994
The Hutchinson Blue Dragons are National Champions. The Hutchinson Community College won the program's third men's basketball national championship on Saturday night with an 84-58 victory over Eastern Florida State in the NJCAA Tournament Championship Game at the Sports Arena. The Blue Dragons have now won national championships in 1988, 1994 and 2017. It's Hutchinson's sixth overall national championship in school history. Hutchinson sophomore Shakur Juiston (6'7''-F) was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Juiston joins Maurice Brittian (1988) and Roy Hairston (1994) as Blue Dragon national tournament MVPs. Juiston finished with tournament highs of 88 points and 56 rebounds. He also averaged 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game. Joining Juiston on the all-tournament team are sophomore Samajae Haynes-Jones (6'0''-G) and freshman J.J. Rhymes (6'4''-G). Head coach Steve Eck was named the Coach of the Tournament. This is Eck's first Division I national championship after winning won in Division I with Redlands Community College. This was Eck's first Divisoin I national title game victory in three tries - one at Redlands and two at Hutchinson. To get to the 2017 national championship, the Blue Dragons had to defeat three Florida teams. Hutch defeated St. Petersburg (95-78) in the second round, Northwest Florida State (88-79) in the semifinals and Eastern Florida State in the championship game. The Blue Dragons got off to a tremendous start, especially on the defensive end. Hutchinson held Eastern Florida State to four points over the first 12 minutes of the game in building a 21-4 lead with 8:38 to go in the first half. Hutchinson held Eastern Florida State to 7 of 33 shooting in the first half (21.2 percent) as the Blue Dragons led 39-16 at intermission. Devonte Bandoo led the Blue Dragons with 22 points on 10 of 17 shooting, including two 3-point goals. Rhymes had 11 points. The Blue Dragons were 34 of 69 from the field (49.3 percent), hitting 5 of 16 from 3-point range and 11 of 16 from the foul line. The Blue Dragons were out-rebounded 49-45, but had only had only 10 turnovers to 29 assist. Defensively, Hutchinson limited Eastern Florida State to 29.3 percent from the field (22 of 75). The Titans hit 6 of 22 from 3-point range and were 8 of 11 from the foul line. Eastern Florida State turned the ball over times. Shaq Carter (6'9''-F) had 14 points, while Ahmed Ali (5'10''-PG) and Michael Nuga (6'2''-G) had 12 points. Juiston posted his fourth double-double of the tournament and led Hutchinson on Saturday with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Hutchinson's career rebound leader ends with 742 rebounds. Courtesy of: bluedragonssports.com
NJCAA D1 All-Tournament Awards 2017
MVP: Shakur Juiston (6'7''-F) of Hutchinson Outstanding Small Player Award: Ahmed Ali (5'10''-PG) of Eastern Florida State Sportsmanship Award: Joshua Webster (6'3''-G) of South Plains Coach of the Tournament: Steve Eck of Hutchinson All-Tournament Team Adarius Avery (6'5''-G) of Connors State Isaiah Hart (6'2''-G) of Motlow State Jeromy Rodriguez (6'7''-F-96) of Northwest Florida State Daryl Edwards (6'4''-G-96) of Northwest Florida State Corey Davis (6'2''-G) of San Jacinto - Central Jordan Brangers (6'2''-G) of South Plains Chris Darrington (6'1''-G) of Vincennes Ahmed Ali (5'10''-PG) of Eastern Florida State Kareem Brewton (6'3''-G) of Eastern Florida State Eli Abaev (6'8''-F) of Eastern Florida State Samajae Haynes-Jones (6'0''-G) of Hutchinson J.J. Rhymes (6'4''-G) of Hutchinson
Southwestern Community College beats Louisburg for NJCAA D2 championship
Southwestern Community College put an exclamation mark on a dominant season with a dominant performance that won a national championship. SWCC, located in Creston, beat Louisburg College (North Carolina), 77-53, on Saturday to take the NJCAA Division II men's basketball championship in Danville, Ill. It is the second-highest winning margin since the Division II championship game began in 1986. The top-seeded Spartans (36-1) were led by Brodric Thomas (6'5''-G), who had 16 points and was named the tournament's most outstanding player. Troy Locke (6'3''-F) led Louisburg with 14 points. Louisburg took a brief two-point lead early in the game, but after that it was all Southwestern. In the second half, the Hurricanes tied the score at 35 with 14 minutes, 20 seconds left, but that's as close as they would get. Southwestern then hit a three and would never look back. The lead stayed in double digits most of the second half, rising to more than 20 points in the closing minutes. SWCC's Jordan Johnson, who had 11 points, and Lavon Hightower (6'5''-F), who had 13, were named to the all-tournament team. Coach Todd Lorensen was named NJCAA Division II coach of the year. It was the Spartans' second appearance in the national tournament and the program's first appearance in the championship game. SWCC led for nearly the entire first half, too, thanks to forcing 14 turnovers and committing just eight. The Spartans went into the break leading 31-25. Free throws helped Louisburg stay in the game as SWCC hit just 4 of 11 charity-stripe attempts in the opening 20 minutes. Hurricanes guard Mikiel Watkins led everyone with nine first-half points. Courtesy of: desmoinesregister.com
NJCAA D2 All-Tournament Awards 2017
MVP: Brodric Thomas (6'5''-G) of Southwestern Outstanding Small Player Award: Anthony Lupardus (6'0''-PG) of Johnson County Coach of the Tournament: Todd Lorensen of Southwestern All-Tournament Team Luke Beesley (6'5''-F) of Parkland Frank Rokins (6'5''-F) of Essex County Jeffrey Drake-Todd (6'0''-PG) of Grand Rapids Rasheide Bell (6'2''-G) of South Suburban Anthony Harris (6'4''-G/F) of South Suburban Jaquan Wooten (6'9''-C) of Richard Bland Deion James (6'8''-G/F) of Pima Brodric Thomas (6'5''-G) of Southwestern Jordan Johnson (6'0''-PG) of Southwestern Lavon Hightower (6'5''-F) of Southwestern Jordan Oakley (6'5''-F) of Louisburg Troy Locke (6'3''-F) of Louisburg
NJCAA D3 All-Tournament Awards 2017
MVP: Ayo Dada (G) of North Lake (TX) Coach of the Tournament: Tim McGraw of North Lake (TX) All-Tournament Team Dare Brazeal (6'5''-F) of North Lake (TX) Edvonte Copeland (5'11''-PG) of Anoka-Ramsey (MN) Homer Denson (C) of Elgin (IL) Josh Harris (F) of North Lake (TX) Kameron Jimenez-Fox (F) of MassBay (MA) Brandon Rothrock (5'11''-PG) of Davidson County (NC) Tyquan Scott (F) of Herkimer (NY) Juwan Stewart (F) of Elgin (IL)
Rock
North Lake upsets its way to DIII championship
The North Lake Community College men's basketball coach has the name befitting of a country western music legend. But Tim McGraw made a little history for himself on the hardwood in Rochester on Saturday night. McGraw guided fifth-seeded North Lake past N. 2 Elgin Community College 66-56 in title game of the Division III NJCAA National Championships at Rochester Community and Technical College. In doing so, McGraw became the first men's basketball community college coach to win three national titles at the non-scholarship level. "It's very humbling, it really is because I've had great kids," McGraw said. "We've had a lot of other teams that didn't even get here and I feel bad for some of those other kids. But these kids had to overcome adversity. They worked hard for this." Like Elgin, North Land had to navigate through the eight-team field with a somewhat limited roster. North Land freshman guard Deanthony Owens (F), part of team's all-Texas squad, was coming off an injury and was not at full strength. "He's still only about 80 percent," McGraw said. With Owens limited, 6-foot freshman guard Ayo Dada (G) stepped up. He scored 16 points and made 4 of 8 3-pointers in the title game to lead the Blazers. Dada was named the MVP of the tournament. "It feels great, we worked hard," Dada said. "This was our goal all season." North Lake entered the tournament not only as the No. 5 seed, but it had a modest 19-11 record. McGraw that was in part due to playing 11 scholarship teams during the season. The Blazers also play in the tough six-team Metro Athletic League, will all squads located in the Dallas area. "That's probably why we had so much confidence because of all the scholarship schools we played," McGraw said. McGraw has coached at North Land for 20 seasons. This is his fifth time taking the Blazers to the national tournament and he also won championships in 2006 and 2008. McGraw took advantage some of his former players for motivation heading into this year's three-day event. "We had guys from the previous championships come in and talk to the team last week," he said. "Those guys talked about what it took." The current players took the advise and rattled off three straight wins, topping No. 1 Anoka-Ramsey from Minnesota in the process, to win the title and finish 22-11. "I know he's happy," Dada said of McGraw winning another title. "He deserves it big-time; he's a great coach." As for the game, North Lake played a tough hybrid man-to-man/zone defense that gave Elgin (31-6) fits. Elgin shot just 29 percent from the floor and had a seven-minute scoring drought at one point in the second half. "We don't see a lot of zone where we're from," said Elgin coach Reed Nosbisch of his Illinois-based team. "That caused a lot of problems." North Land went on a 14-0 run in that span to open up a 52-29 lead. Elgin made a run and got within nine and then missed a 3-pointer with 3:00 left. It got within eight with 28 seconds left before the Blazers got the game's final bucket. "We just couldn't shoot the ball," Nosbisch said. ".... I thought we just couldn't get things going." Elgin was also without leading scorer Chris Benjamin (G), who was hurt in a game prior to the tournament and didn't play on the national stage. This was the first time the Division III NJCAA men's tournament was held in Rochester. The city has hosted the women's tournament in the past. Next year the men's event moves back to New York, and then it will return to Rochester in 2019 before going up for bid again. Courtesy of: postbulletin.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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