Salem CC basketball will play for third place in the national tournament after losing to top-seeded Northern Essex in Division III semifinals; Knights’ Robinson scores 39
JUCO DIVISION III TOURNAMENT
At Herkimer, N.Y.
Friday’s Games
Joliet 102, Genesee 100 (OT)
Riverland 97, Ridgewater 89
Northern Essex 88. Salem CC 85
Dallas Richland 67, Dallas North Lake 59
Saturday’s Games
Fifth-place game: Joliet vs. Riverland, noon
Third-place game: Salem CC vs. Dallas North Lake, 2 p.m.
Championship game: No. 1 Northern Essex vs. No. 10 Dallas Richland, 5 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
HERKIMER, N.Y. – The Salem CC basketball team hasn’t felt the pain of defeat very often this season, but each one hurt worse than the last. The one Friday cut deepest of all.
The Mighty Oaks had their dream of winning a national championship shattered on a snowy night here when they suffered an uncharacteristically mistake-prone 88-85 loss to top-seeded Northern Essex in the semifinals of the JUCO Division III national tournament.
The fourth-seeded Mighty Oaks (31-2) have lost only three games this year and all carried some significance. The first, to Brookdale, ended their season-opening 22-game winning streak and knocked them from No. 1 in the country. The second, to Montgomery County, cost them the district championship, an automatic bid here and maybe even the No. 1 seed. Friday’s loss ended their dream of winning their first national championship.
“We made the same mistakes against Montco we made tonight,” Salem coach Mike Green said. “(Giving up) offensive rebounds when it mattered the most, no stops when it mattered the most. (The loss to) Montco hurt more than anything, the championship and the way my guys played. At least they went out and competed today. It’s unfortunate. So close, but so far.
“I thought we played well enough to win. We just didn’t guard and turned the ball over.”
The most frustrating element of the loss was once the Mighty Oaks did fall behind every time they would get close, the Knights (32-3) answered to turn them away, either by creating an empty possession through a turnover or missed shot or answering with points of their own.
They got within 52-50, Alex Johnson hit buckets on consecutive possessions to push it back to 56-50. They closed to 61-59, Jacob Mercedes answered with a basket. They drew within 62-61 with 12:00 left then missed three straight shots and Jayvon Depina made them pay with a 3-pointer. They tied it at 66, then the Knights went on a 9-0 run through the 8:00 media timeout while the Mighty Oaks went through six straight empty possessions. It was like that the whole second half.
“Their pressure really wasn’t nothing,” Nasseem Wright said. “Our team is young, so like none of us want to make mistakes and that causes us to make mistakes. I don’t want to discredit their team, but it was moreso like we were just giving away possessions. We’d come down and score and then we’d give up a backdoor layup. That’s not anything they did, that’s on us by not guarding our man. We were literally giving them those possessions.
“If they were outright better than us it’s like I won’t be able to accept (the loss) but I’ll be able to see from it. I can’t see it now because I don’t think none of these teams are better than us. I just feel like we’re literally just giving away championships by not being disciplined. Those same things we’ve been dealing with throughout the whole season versus lesser teams who aren’t playing for anything, it didn’t really harm us. But now when you’ve got guys who are coming out there, they might not be the better team, but they’re going to play as hard as ever because they’re playing for something, those mistakes are going to come back and bite you.
“Those same mistakes you can’t do because it’s not about skill at the end of the day, it’s about who’s going out there willing to die on the court. That’s something we didn’t do. We didn’t die on the court. We didn’t leave it all on the floor. That’s not like us. It happened in the Brookdale game, which was a loss, it happened in the Montco game, which was a loss, and it happened today.”
The Mighty Oaks were charged with 21 turnovers and gave up 36 points in the paint. They let sophomore guard Alex Johnson get loose for 39 points. It’s the most points the Mighty Oaks have given up by one player since Sussex’ P.J. Ross went for 39 against them near the end of Green’s first season. Johnson was 12-of-23 from the field and 15-of-19 from the free throw line.
Alejandro Delgado, the Region 21 Player of the Year, had 15 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots, including one of a Saaid Lee layup with 11.7 seconds left that kept Salem once again from getting within two.
“My guys didn’t follow the scouting report,” Green said. “They did it their way and so you give up 40 points to one guy. Let right-handed drivers go right-handed drive. That’s the game: 20 turnovers, 39 points to a right-handed driver.”
Their own top scorers, Jarrell Little and Wright, both fouled out in the final two minutes. They finished with nine and eight points, respectively, the only time this season they’ve been held to single digits in the same game. Lee wound up as their leading scorer with 23 points, two shy of his career high. He was 6-of-9 from the field, hit all three of his 3-pointers and all eight of his free throws.
The freshman point guard hit a deep 3-pointer over Johnson with 5.9 seconds left to draw his team within 87-85. Johnson hit a free throw at the other end with 4.6 seconds left to make it a three-point game and Green called his final time out immediately after the shot went through to set up a game-tying play.
They just wanted to get any shot, but Lee tripped shortly after crossing mid-court and may have had a case for a blocking foul against the Knights, but was called for traveling. Lee defended the inbounds pass to Johnson and replays looked as if the ball went out off Johnson’s hands, but the officials awarded the ball to the Knights with four-tenths of a second left and they simply passed it in with the Mighty Oaks standing near their bench to end the game.
“I pulled it,” he said of the turnovers. “I feel horrible.”
The Mighty Oaks can still leave here on a positive note if they beat third-seeded Dallas North Lake in Saturday’s 2 p.m. consolation game. It would allow them to end the season with a win, just not the win they came here to get.
NORTHERN ESSEX 88, SALEM CC 85
SALEM CC (31-3): Jarrell Little 3-11 2-4 9, Saaid Lee 6-9 8-8 23, Zyaire Gibson 4-5 3-3 14, Nasseem Wright 4-10 0-2 8, Stefan Phillips 1-3 0-0 3, Jahseir Sayles 0-1 0-0 0, Qua Smith 1-1 5-6 7, Nayeem Johnson 6-13 3-4 15, Idris Rines 3-5 0-0 6. Totals 28-58 21-27 85.
NORTHERN ESSEX (32-3): Alex Johnson 12-23 15-19 39, Joan Vidal 2-3 1-2 5, Yunosuke Matsuda 2-7 0-0 5, Christian Sanders 3-4 4-6 11, Alejandro Delgado 6-12 2-4 15, Jayvon Depina 1-5 0-0 3, Cristian Moscat 0-4 2-2 2, Johnarieus Davis 2-4 0-0 4, Jacob Mercedes 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 30-64 24-33 88.
| Salem CC | 42 | 43- | 85 |
| Northern Essex | 49 | 39- | 88 |
3-point goals: Salem CC 8-19 (Little 1-5, Lee 3-3, Gibson 3-4, Wright 0-1, Phillips 1-2 Sayles 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Rines 0-2); Northern Essex 4-13 (Johnson 0-2, Matsuda 1-1, Sanders 1-1, Delgado 1-2, Depina 1-4, Moscat 0-2, Davis 0-1). Rebounds: Salem CC 41 (Wright 9, Smith 7, Johnson 7); Northern Essex 32 (Delgado 7, Moscat 7). Fouled out: Little, Wright. Total fouls: Salem CC 26, Northern Essex 19,
Top photo: Northern Essex guard Alex Johnson brings the ball up against Salem CC Friday. Johnson scored a career-high 39 points as the Knights downed the Mighty Oaks 88-85 to advance to the JUCO Division III national title game. (NJCAA photo)
Riverview Sports News 