1/02/01

by Thomas McTernan

Southern Idaho, the nation's #1-ranked team in the NJCAA preseason poll, had just beaten Southeastern Iowa, the defending national champs. With a 5-0 record, the Golden Eagles headed south to Ocala, Florida for the 13th Annual Pepsi NIT tournament. They were looking for a warm Thanksgiving weekend and their third title in this tournament, having won here in 1988 and 1990.

But Daytona Beach had other ideas and surprised the Golden Eagles 82-76 on November 23, overcoming a decided height disadvantage with physical play and balanced scoring. Freshman Chris Young topped the Falcons with 20 points while Demetrius Felder and John Thomas each added 19. Blandon Ferguson had 25 points and 6 rebounds for CSI, which held a 43-39 halftime lead in a game that was close throughout. Southern Idaho's twin 6-11 towers,Uche Okafor and Ben Eze, combined for just 11 points and 9 rebounds as the taller Golden Eagles were outrebounded 36-35.

CSI rebounded to take fifth place in the tourney with wins over Champlain VT (74-61, Cardell Butler- 24 points) and Palm Beach (95-84, Ferguson- 24 points) that improved their season record to 7-1 record and the #3 ranking in the November 28 NJCAA poll.

A week earlier, Southern Idaho swept all three games of its K&T Steel Invitational. In the 94-63 romp over Southeastern Iowa on November 18, the Eagles broke away from a 38-33 halftime lead with an 11-0 run to start the second half. All-tournament selection Jason Brazier had 16 points and MVP Ferguson 13 for CSI. A day earlier, Ferguson had 31 in a 107-75 triumph over Howard (TX).

Southern Idaho's loss to Daytona allowed Moberly Area (MO) to move into the #1 spot, but the Greyhounds (8-0) need OT to top Olney Central (IL) 104-95 on November 25. Moberly trailed 51-41 at the half but took control with a late 20-8 spurt before Olney's Frank Richards (20 points) hit a trey with two seconds left and force the extra session. In OT, the Greyhounds hit 10-of-14 free throws to ice the game. Qyntel Woods had 19 of his team-high 25 after halftime, including 10 in OT, while Terrance Saulsberry added 20 and Nick Benson 19. Jabbar Battles, a 6-6 freshman, had a game-high 32 for Olney (4-3).

Moberly also recorded wins over North Arkansas (115-86, Woods- 24), Marshalltown IA (93-86, Petie Spaulding- 29, Woods- 24, Benson- 22) and St. Catharine KY (123-75) on their way to the top ranking. Okaloosa-Walton (FL) moved into the #2 spot with an 8-0 mark with sweeps of successive weekend tournaments. In the November 17-18 Panhandle Shootout, freshman Brandon Vincent hit the game-winner with 10 seconds left to cap a 12-3 finishing spurt as the Raiders edged Santa Fe (FL) 74-73. LSU signee Kedrick Brown led with 22 points while Vincent contributed a double of 12 points and 10 rebounds for OWCC, which trailed 43-30 at the half. The next day, OWCC again trailed for most of the first half before rallying to hand Daytona its first loss 82-79 as Brown tallied 21 points and 9 boards. The Raiders had it much easier with out-of-state opponents in its Alltel Classic November 24-25 with romps over Calhoun AL 117-82 (Brown- 24 points/14 boards, Tyrone Hayes- 23 points) and Hiwassee TN 133-53 (Brown-26 points).

Vincennes IN (7-0) moved up to the #4 spot after wins over a pair of Michigan schools: Kellogg (73-65 on November 18, Andre Horton- 22 points) and Glen Oaks (104-81 on November 21), in whichMaurice Jackson tallied 22 points, 9 rebounds and Tim Harris and Ryan Hixson contributed 20 points apiece.

Seward County (KS) improved to 10-0 with a sweep of both the 11/17-18 Wendy's Clasic and the 11/23-25 Western Nebraska tournament, the finale of which was a 65-64 decision over the host school. Jamal Brown recorded double-doubles in all three wins in Nebraska: 22 points and 13 rebounds against Trinidad State CO (97-68), 21 and 12 against McCook CO (94-49) and 21 and 11 against host Western Nebraska, which was led by Iowa State recruit Tommie King's 18 points.

NJCAA NOTES: Indian Hills (IA) got a belated start to their season but quickly ran off five straight wins over Black Hawk IL (97-61), John Wood IL (98-65), Southwestern Iowa (91-68) Olney Central IL (79-65) and St. Catharine KY (116-77). Willie McCloud, Chauncey Leslie and freshman Brandon Brooks have sparked the #8 Warriors in the early going. . . Eastern Oklahoma defeated Seminole State (OK) 83-74 in a key district 2 matchup November 27 despite a 28-point performance by Danny Allen of Seminole (9-1). Michal Ignerski had 21 for Eastern Oklahoma, 7-0 and ranked #9 nationally. . . #7 Midland (TX) suffered its first loss, 63-61, to Cisco (TX) on November 18, on an out-of-bounds play with 1.8 seconds left. . .Barton (KS) improved to 8-1, including an 80-67 triumph over Marshalltown (IA) in their Pizza Hut Classic on November 18. Eric Bush had 22 and Ebi Ere 21 to pace the Cougars.

Tallahassee (FL) remained unbeaten at 10-0 with a 106-93 win over Schoolcraft (MI) on November 24. Marcus Hatten led the Eagles with 25 while DePaul signee Sam Hoskin had a game-high 26 for Schoolcraft . Rose State (OK) the preseason favorite in Division II, got 24 points apiece from Jerome Bell and Oscar Woods to hand Carl Albert (OK) its first loss of the season, 85-67, on November 16. . .In a November 20 battle of unbeaten teams, Otero (CO) opened a 20-point lead in the opening session and pulled away from Odessa (TX) 95-80 at home. Kale Kovalski led five Otero players in double figures with 29 while Taron Barker topped Odessa (7-1) with 17. Otero then dropped to 10-1 with a 98-82 loss at Dodge City (KS) on November 28. . . San Jacinto (TX) dropped out of the NJCAA rankings after losing to Collin County TX (9-1) 78-74 on November 25. . . Vohn Hunter of Champlain (VT) connected on 9-of-17 treys and totaled 40 points in an 89-69 loss to Central Florida in the Pepsi NIT on November 25. . . Aquinas (TN) took the title game of the Pepsi NIT with a 97-96 decision over Chipola (FL), getting 27 points from Nick Jones (7-of-11 3's) and 24 from Odell Bradley to offset the 35-point effort by Kansas State signee Janerio Spurlock (also with 7-of-11 treys). . . Dixie (UT) captured the title of the Pasadena (CA) tournament with a 73-70 decision over Snow (UT) in an all-Region XVIII final November 25. Dixie freshman Jaime Lloreda recorded 29 points and 28 rebounds in a 93-71 win over Mesa (AZ) November 17. . . SMSU-West Plains (MO) improved to 10-0 with sweeps of its own and the Coffeyville Classic.

COA NOTES: Los Angeles City defeated Sequoias in the finals of the Oxnard tournament November 26 behind MVP Jimmy Miggins. The Cubs assumed the top spot in the COA state poll after preseason #1 Porterville was placed on probation and #2 San Jose City was upset by #22 San Francisco 104-73 on November 15. . . San Jose was playing without injured star Antonae Roberson and were outrebounded 39-26 by the Rams, who placed six scorers in double figures. . . San Francisco then dropped a 65-60 decision on November 22 to another ranked team, #9 San Joaquin Delta, which was sparked by Leon Ballard (22 points, 8 rebounds) and made twelve straight free throws down the stretch. . . Porterville (8-0) defeated Feather River 112-79 to win the Diablo Valley Chevron Classic on November 26. David Bell connected for 10 treys and 33 points to garner tourney MVP honors. Mike Mackell and Doug Dormu also made the all-tournament team for Porterville, which reached the final by topping San Jose City 80-72 behind Mackell's 34 points and 11 rebounds. . . Desmond Penigar scored a career-high 44 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in Ventura's 112-111 double-overtime loss to Foothill November 16 in the Porterville tournament. The host team defeated Foothill 86-67 in the final. . . Santa Ana got 26 points and 11 rebounds from Zac Fray in their 80-75 win over MiraCosta November 15. . . Skyline defeated Shasta 77-57 to win the Shasta Tournament led by MVP Maurice Cato.

Thomas McTernan is a member of the coaching staff of the Brooklyn USA AAU program and the director of the annual Big Apple Junior College Exposure Games in NYC.  He works with JUCO players and coaches across the nation.