Northwest Florida Back In The NJCAA Final Four
Hutchinson, KS – Quarterfinal #2 featured the No. 2 Seed Dodge City CC Conquistadors and the No. 10 Seed Northwest Florida State Raiders.
Northwest Florida, under the leadership of first year Raider Head Coach Greg Heiar has re-appeared on the upper levels of the Juco Basketball landscape. Back to back subpar seasons left a two year void in tournament appearances. This trip, it looks like the Raiders are trying to make up lost ground.
The Raiders were the first lower seed to upset a higher seed in this years tournament in game number 12. And it happened again, in this game number 18, as the Raiders come away with a comfortable and satisfying
Dodge City Head Coach Jake Williams is in his second season. His Conqs were issued the No. 2 overall seed after putting together a Jayhawk Conference Championship and Plains District Title. Pretty good resume building stuff for him, don’t you think?
The first half belonged to the Raiders, as they lead or were tied for all but about 10 seconds. The Raiders waltzed into the locker room leading 43-32. After the break, much of the same. Northwest pushed to a comfortable lead fluctuating between a three or four possession contest, before extending the margin to 15 to 18 for the last four plus minutes. NW never trailed after the break. In fact, the Raiders led for 38:29 minutes of the game for the 92-74 final.
NW moves to 29-5 and reaches the National Semifinal where they will play the winner of Kilgore/Triton at 8:00 CDT on Friday, March 18.
Cam Woods led all scorers with 25 points on 9-12 shooting. He was followed by Tre Clark with 17 and Deshawndre Washington’s 12. Issa Muhammad ended up with 10. He and Brennan Rigsby led the team with 6 boards.
The loss drops Dodge City’s record to 30-5. Kalen Williams found home with 20 points adding 6 boards and 4 assists. Themus Fulks and Oumar Koureissi both finished with 17 points. Nick Pringle and Williams finished with team high 6 rebounds.
