Mighty Oaks draw Cinderella Joliet in national tournament opener after 12th seed beats No. 5 DC Eastfield; Montco game suspended with 6:33 left in second half due to power outage
JUCO DIVISION III TOURNAMENT
At Herkimer (N.Y.) CC
No. 9 Genesee (N.Y.) 68, No. 8 Northampton (Pa.) 62
No. 12 Joliet (Ill.) 84, No. 5 DC Eastfield (Texas) 83
No. 10 DC Richland (Texas) 63, No. 7 Dutchess (N.Y.) 58
No. 11 Ridgewater (Minn.) 64, No. 6 Montgomery County (Pa.) 61, 2nd half, susp.
Thursday’s games
Resumption of Montco-Ridgewater game, 9 a.m.
No. 8 Northampton vs. No. 5 DC Eastfield, 10 a.m.
No. 7 Dutchess (N.Y.) vs. No. 6 Montco (Pa.)-No. 11 Ridgewater (Minn.) loser, noon
No. 1 Northern Essex (Mass.) vs. No. 9 Genesee (N.Y.), 2 p.m.
No. 4 Salem CC vs. No. 12 Joliet (Ill.), 4 p.m.
No. 2 Riverland (Minn.) vs. No. 10 DC Richland (Texas), 6 p.m.
No. 3 DC North Lake (Texas) vs. No. 6 Montgomery County (Pa.)-No. 11 Ridgewater (Minn.) winner, 8 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
HERKIMER, N.Y. — It’s funny how things have a way of turning out sometimes.
A couple hours before the selection show for the JUCO Division III national tournament came on the air, the Salem CC coaches had a replay of a Joliet Junior College game playing in the office. The Wolves were in as a district champion and if the Mighty Oaks were getting an at-large bid, the Mid-Atlantic champions might be a team they’d have to play.
Not that the Mighty Oaks had any idea who they were going to play or how the seedings were going to fall, but guess who they play in their tournament opener Thursday?
Joliet, the No. 12 seed with the weakest overall record in the field, put down fifth-seeded Dallas College Eastfield 84-83 Wednesday on a layup with 3.5 seconds left after missing an open layup moments earlier that could have put it away.
“We’re a team of destiny,” Wolves guard Ricky Hill said. “We play a lot of good teams, we played a lot of close games. I don’t really feel our record (16-11) reflects who we are as a team.”
Indeed, as the only Division III JUCO in Illinois, the Wolves played a schedule largely of Division I and Division II teams. They’ve even knocked off some of the bigger names on that level this year.
The Salem coaches watched the game from the jump, setting up shop seven rows behind the Eastfield bench. The players joined them after halftime. They’d seen all the teams on film. Seeing them live confirmed what they suspected.
“Good team, really good team,” Green said. “They’ve got a really good front six or seven that look like they’ve been playing together for years. Very well put together. Play well for each other.”
“We’re going to have to play hard,” guard Zyaire Gibson said after watching the game.
By the same token, Joliet coach Danny Turner has been impressed with the Mighty Oaks’ guard play. Their top five scorers – all averaging double figures – are all guards. The top three – Jarrell Little, Nasseem Wright and Saaid Lee – all have more than 130 assists apiece. Gibson (87) and Little (80) lead the team in 3-pointers.
“Their guards are extremely good, high IQ, so we’re going to have to do something to contain their guards and keeping them from executing, and that’s either in transition or in their half-court set,” Joliet coach Danny Turner said.
Last year here the Mighty Oaks won their first-round game, but expended an awful lot of energy to do and didn’t have anything left to face second-seeded Mohawk Valley in the quarterfinals. Green can’t count on that happening to the Wolves this year.
“I don’t know; it’s a different team,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of conditioning they’re in. But they’ve been playing like that all year, been playing six or seven guys. They might be fine. That’s how they play. It’s tough on their legs, but it’s championship time, it’s win or go home, so I’m sure it’s mind over matter and they’re a champion so I’m sure they’re thinking mind over matter.”
The Wolves did use a lot of energy. They held a 12-point lead with 8:42 to play, but found themselves in a dogfight after Reggie McDonald got the Harvester Bees (20-10) to within one on a 3-pointer with 2:04 to play.
Joliet had a chance to extend their lead with less than 25 seconds left, but Hill missed a wide open layup down the lane. Eastfield’s Aiden White grabbed the rebound and brought it all the way back, finishing the play with a layup to put the Bees up 83-82 with 19.5 seconds to go.
“It was one of those things that was like, ‘I wish I could have that back,’ but you’ve got to keep playing and make the right play the next play,” Hill said. “Shout out to Kareem (Parker) and Levi (Goad) for getting that and making it up for me because we’re a team and we’re just going to ride out with each other.”
The Wolves did get another chance. They worked the clock down, Hill missed a 3-pointer, but Parker grabbed the rebound and laid it back up to give Joliet an 84-83 lead with 3.5 seconds to go. Eastfield’s Braydon Campbell fired off a shot from midcourt at the buzzer that missed and the Wolves had the first real upset of the tournament.
“I think the jitters are out now,” Turner said. “The guys were a little nervous coming in. We did some uncharacteristic things on both sides of the ball, but now we’re settled down. Definitely after a win like this, against a very, very well-coached team.”
JOLIET 84, DC EASTFIELD 83
JOLIET (16-11): Ricky Hill 8-14 10-11 27, Jyaveion Green 4-11 2-2 13, Levi Goad 4-7 4-4 15, Jeff Fleming 4-8 0-1 8, Victor Yatou 1-8 5-8 7, Kareem Parker 4-5 2-2 10, Josh Dillon 0-0 0-0 0, Kaden Faber 1-1 0-0 2, Gabe Patterson 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 27-56 23-28 84.
DALLAS COLLEGE EASTFIELD (20-9): Braydon Campbell 5-15 5-5 15, Aiden White 5-13 0-1 12, Ricky Wilson 7-11 1-315, David Uwalaka 6-12 1-2 16, Martez James 5-9 4-5 14, Reggie McDonald 2-3 0-0 6, Montreal Chalmers 0-1 0-0 0, Martin Nicholas 2-5 0-0 4, Vuk Vukadinovic 0-0 1-2 1, Nash Beard 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-69 12-18 83.
| Joliet | 45 | 39- | 84 |
| DC Eastfield | 40 | 43- | 83 |
Top photo: Salem CC coaches Mike Green (R) and Marvin Kilgore take in the action from Wednesday’s Joliet-DC Eastfield game in the Division III JUCO national tournament. The Mighty Oaks will play Joliet in their first tournament game Thursday.
Riverview Sports News 