Men’s Basketball team wins its second national championship in three years
Photo by Lotis Butchko
The North Lake Men’s Basketball team celebrates after winning their second National Championship in three years. Despite being down early in the semi-final game, the team rallied and played an amazing tournament in Delhi, N.Y. March 15.
Editor’s note: Lotis Butchko traveled to New York with the basketball team to cover the tournament.
In the movie Friday Night Lights, Coach Gary Gaines of Permian High School asks one of his football players what it’s like “out there.”
The player responds: “They’re fast, they’re big, they’re dirty... plus they’re fast.”
Some junior college basketball coaches around the nation probably had similar thoughts in late March after North Lake College’s Blazers won their second national championship since 2005 in Division III of the National Junior College Athletic Association.
But Coach Tim McGraw had a better explanation for the Blazers’ 73-70 victory in the championship game in Delhi, N.Y.: “We played the toughest schedule of any NJCAA D-III team in America, and they grew because of it.”
McGraw’s team struggled early in the season against several bigger Division I and II teams, but they hit their stride later against Metro Athletic Conference foes. And they began their remarkable run into the national tournament by overcoming a second-half 19-point deficit against Richland College in the MAC tournament.
North Lake then beat Brookhaven College to take the MAC championship and gain entrance to the big show in Delhi, or, as McGraw describes it, “North Lake’s other home.”
As the Blazers earned two national titles and a fourth-place finish in three years, some Delhi residents seemed to adopt North Lake as an annual favorite. Among those rooting for the Blazers this year were Marion Jardine, Martha Musgrove and Norma Smith, who said: “We love the team’s energy. They are a well-mannered team and are fun to cheer for.”
In North Lake’s first game in the national tournament, the Blazers faced Central Lakes College, a team from Minnesota that posed several match-up problems for the young crew from Texas. Despite shooting a season-low 20 percent from three-point range and trailing with just 15 seconds left in the game, the Blazers advanced when Brian Sanders nailed a jump shot with 11 seconds remaining.
In their second game, North Lake played heavily favored Hostos College of the Bronx. The Blazers overcame 24 turnovers by tightening their defense to hold Hostos to a field-goal percentage of only 34.3 percent.
Joliet Junior College, a team from Illinois, was heavily favored to win the national championship. But North Lake claimed the title by playing tough defense and shooting 47.6 percent from the field.
Sanders led the Blazers with 23 points against Joliet, and Nathan Pratt had North Lake’s only double-double of the tournament, scoring 10 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
Jaime Egenti had a fantastic game against Joliet, scoring 14 points and blocking three shots.
Throughout the tournament, Jamon Wilson helped the Blazers with quality minutes as a backup guard.
Yousef Taha played with a sprained ankle, but contributed with defense and rebounding. Carlos Montiel averaged six points as a reserve forward.
After the championship game, Pratt was named to the alltournament team. Sanders was named MVP of the tournament, and McGraw received his second award as coach of the tournament.
H. Ross, brother of North Lake forward Bryant Ross, best summarized the national champion Blazers: “Battle-tested. Hardfought. We won this one in the trenches.”
Back at North Lake, McGraw added: “You may have noticed our players wearing T-shirts that said ‘2 in 1.’ That originated from something that we told our players at the first of practice in October. Since we only had two players returning from last year’s team … we told our guys that they had to make two years worth of progress in one if we were going to be able to return to the national tournament in New York.
“To their credit, they did it,” McGraw said.