Two other teams punch tickets to national tournament Friday night
Tuscaloosa, AL – April 9, 2021
Shelton State CC, ranked #4 in the latest NJCAA poll, won its third consecutive District title with a convincing home court victory over upstart Wallace CC-Selma, 71-55. The Bucs led by 8 at the break, and kept the pressure on, doubling that advantage by the end of the game.
Selma, who finished 19-5, was having an outstanding season, and came into the tournament as the #2 seed. They lost the last game in regular season, which ended their 14 winning streak. Rodney Battle led the Patriots with 17 points. Rakeim Gary ended up with 11 points and Jashavious Perdue grabbed 11 rebounds.
The Bucs are now 23-1, suffered their only loss in their last regular season contest against Coastal Alabama-South. Sean Elmore had game high honors for Shelton State, playing all 40 minutes. Two other Bucs had double figures, Thaddeus Williams contributed a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, adding 6 assist and 4 steals in 37 minutes of work. Michael Thomas added 14 points and Andres Burney was chairman of the boards nabbing a dozen.
Both teams will be watching the selection show Sunday night with great interest. Shelton to see were they are positioned, Selma to find out if their resume was enough to garner one of the eight At-large bids that will be handed out. The show starts at 7:00 PM EDT and will be aired on NJCAATV.
Clinton, MS – April 9, 2021
In the Gulf District, played on a neutral court at Mississippi College, the #5 seed Holmes CC Bulldogs and the #2 seed Northeast Mississippi CC Tigers, were set to square off for the third time this season. Each had won on their home court. NMCC won the first game of the year. Holmes won the last regular season game just a few days ago. Both games were decided by six points. All things pointed toward an exciting contest, right?
Holmes took control early, leading by 7, six minutes in. That lead continued to grow as NE suffered from some cold shooting. The Bulldogs largest lead in the first twenty minutes was 14 (26-12) with just over 4 minutes left. The Tigers were able to get within six a couple of times in the last minute before settling for the 32-24 deficit at halftime.
Things got worse quickly for the Tigers, five minutes in they found themselves down 13, and never recoved. The Holmes lead stayed double digits the rest of the way and the biggest lead was the final margin. The win puts Holmes record at 15-4. Northeast also stands at 15-4.
The Tigers, who shot only 28% from the field (17-60) for the game, was a dismal 9% from three point land, hitting only 3 of 31 tries. The trio of Kylan Blackmon, Ken Lewis, and Deandre Hypolite each scored ten points. Zeke Cook barely missed a double-double with 9 points and a beastly 15 boards.
The Bulldog’s Brandon Weatherspoon took game high honors netting 22. He was followed by Tyler Talley’s 20 and 14 from Kaleb Higgins, the team’s leading scorer at 20.3 ppg. Weatherspoon was team high with 8 rebounds, while Higgins had 5 helpers. Holmes, winners of 8 in a row and 14 of their last 15, have a record of 15-4. Just like all of the other District Champs, they’ll sit and wait until Sunday nights live broadcast of the seedings, first round match-ups, and at-large selections. That show can be seen on NJCAATV at 7:00 EDT. The top eight seeds receive byes.
Holmes last trip to Hutch was during the 2017-18 campaign. HCC, the District Championship that year received an #18 seed, lost their first round game to #15 seed Western Nebraska CC, 87-73.
