Metro Athletic champs
By Glen Sovian
Staff Writer
Third time is charm for the North Lake College men’s basketball team. The Blazers finally captured the Metro Athletic Conference (MAC) post-season tournament title on Mar. 6, after being season conference co-champion in the previous two consecutive seasons.
The North Lake Blazers defeated the Richland Thunderducks in the playoff of the MAC tournament to earn a berth in the 2006 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division III championship in Delhi, N.Y., March 16-18. This is North Lake’s second trip to the national tournament under the Blazer’s head coach Tim McGraw.
“We have worked hard this year against some strong teams in the district,” said McGraw, who previously took the Blazers on their first trip to the NJCAA tournament in 2000. “I am proud of everyone.”
As the other teams in the district, Cedar Valley’s Suns (19-11), Eastfield’s Harvesters (14-17), Mountain View’s Lions (10-15) and Brookhaven’s Bears (7-23), were eliminated in the post-season games, the final showdown came down to a match between the North Lake Blazers and the Richland Thunderducks.
With the victory over the cross-town rival Thunderducks, the Blazers ended the season with a 19-14 overall record, as opposed to the regular season leader Thunderducks’ 24-8.
However, the only thing that mattered was the post-season tournament game. As both teams were jockeying for the post-season tournament title, the winner in an all-out sprint to the finish line was not decided until the final two games.
At the championship game on March 3, the Thunderducks had the upper hand over the Blazers by hosting the post-season game since the Thunderducks finished first in the MAC regular season with a perfect home-game record.
With the Thunderducks leading by two points inside one minute to play in the second half, the Blazers were given possession of the ball after a controversial out-of-bounds call. The subsequent points by the Blazers tied the score and sent the game to an overtime.
The Blazers rallied to close out the game with an 83-78 overtime win, dealing the Thunderducks their first home-game loss in the season.
Due to Richland’s best record in the season, the Thunderducks had another opportunity to host a rematch game on their own turf on March 6. But again, it was the Blazers who capitalized on the opportunity.
At the rematch game, the Thunderducks led the Blazers 36-35 at halftime. However, the Blazers mounted relentless attacks in the second half to finish the game with a 78-69 win, virtually guaranteeing the Blazers a ticket to New York for the national tournament.
It was a well-earned reward for McGraw in his ninth season as the Blazers head coach.
“Coach McGraw did a good job for his team. My hat’s off to North Lake,” Richland’s head coach Chuck Taylor said. “Every time they needed a play, they had someone to step up and make the play.”
The North Lake Blazers led the district earlier in the pre-season as the only team in the MAC league to place in the top 10 list of NJCAA Division III poll, but dropped out of the list shortly before the regular season started on Jan. 21.
Richland and Cedar Valley had since been in the driver seats of the MAC until North Lake came back from behind in the post-season tournament by defeating Brookhaven 95-67 in the first round, Cedar Valley 82-64 in the semifinal, and Richland in the final.
“This has been a challenging year for our basketball team,” said North Lake’s Athletic Director Dan Joutras. “But the men played hard and pulled through when we needed to win.” |
