Rangers Corral Apaches In First Round Action
In game six of the NJCAA National Championship, Ranger College (TX) used second half pressure defense and 59% shooting from the field to stretch a four point halftime lead into a 86-68 victory over the West District Champion Cochise College Apaches (AZ).
There were 6 lead changes and six ties in the game, all occurred in the first half. The last one at the 8:51 mark put Ranger on top 19-18 on Trey Tennyson’s 3-pointer. With a 40-36 advantage at intermission, Ranger gradually added to that lead by outscoring the Apaches 46-32 in the second twenty minutes to gain the 18 point final margin.
Tennnyson was one of five Rangers posting double figures with 12. Game and team high for RC (20-4) was Jorell Saterfield who connected on 9-15 FG, 2 of 3 from 3-point land, and 3 for 4 from the FT line for 23 points. Saterfield added 11 rebounds for a double-double. Peyton Rodgers-Schmidt also recorded the DD pumping in 10 points to go along with 12 boards. Keisei Tominaga (Nebraska commit) aided the Ranger cause with 14, Tennyson and Mark Mayle each had 12.
With the loss, Cochise falls to 11-3. They were led in scoring by Patrick Samoura with 16, followed by Stephen Byard with 14, Brian Rios and Johnathon Garcia collected 12 and 11 respectively. Samoura led the team with 11 rebounds.
For the game, the Rangers shot 53% compared to Cochise, good on just 33% of their shots from the field. Ranger dominated the boards to the tune of 48-36.
Ranger College earns a game with #4 Seed John A. Logan College (18-4) on Wednesday, April 21, scheduled to tip at 12:00. Logan, from Carterville, IL, is the back to back Central District Champions, will be making their 4th appearance at Hutch, and second in a row.
