Monroe wins opening game of Men's DII Basketball Tourney
March 18, 2009
Danville, IL- The opening game of the NJCAA DII Men's Basketball Tournament featured NJCAA District 8 Champion Henry Ford Community College and NJCAA District 2 Champion Monroe Community College. The winner of this game will advance to the 2nd round to play Johnson County Community College, who received a 1st round bye draw.
The score stayed closer for the first 6 minutes of the game, until Henry Ford hit consecutive 3-point shots in transition to give them a 14-7 advantage, which lead to a Monroe timeout with 13 minutes to play in the first half. Monroe Head Coach Jerry Burns was able to rally his troop during the timeout, enabling them to go on an 8-0 run within the next 2 minutes to take the lead. Monroe didn't stop there, as they gradually expanded their lead to 28-19, with 7 until the break. From this point on, both teams were scoring a lot of points in transition. Jeron Belin did it the best for Monroe and was able to flush a couple big dunks, keeping the momentum in Monroe's favor. Henry Ford Head Coach Abe Mashhour called a timeout to regain their composure, but Monroe's Kareem Brown did not allow this to happen by hitting 5 3-pointers after the timeout. Henry Ford was able to muster enough points to stay within 15 points at the break, with a halftime score off 55-42.
1ST HALF LEADERS FOR HENRY FORD:
Thomas Rudy, 6'3" Fresh, 9 pts
Willie Mustin, 5'10" Soph, 8 pts
Renaldo Wallace, 6'6" Fresh, 6 pts
1ST HALF LEADERS FOR MONROE:
Kareem Brown, 6'2" Soph, 17 pts
Jeron Belin, 6'7" Soph, 16 pts
Mark Lake Jr., 6'0" Soph, 10 pts
Neither team lost a beat during the break, coming out with just as quick of a tempo as the initial tip-off. For the first couple minutes of the half, Henry Ford was flirting with cutting the lead to less than 10 points but Monroe's hot hand would not let it happen. The athletes on the floor enabled both teams to continue to score a high volume of points, without running much of a half court offense. Monroe's Mark Lake Jr. continued to play well offensively, scoring 8 points in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half. By this point, Monroe held a 16 point lead, but Henry Ford did not show any signs of giving up. They cut the lead to 9 with 7 minutes left in the contest. Monroe built the lead for the next couple of minutes, but Henry Ford cut it even more to 7 points with 4 minutes left in the game. Jeron Belin put an end to Henry Ford's run, scoring most of his 9 second half points late in the half. Henry Ford began to foul in effort to close the gap with around 2 minutes left, down 11 points. Some big free throws were missed by Monroe, and big shots were made by Henry Ford to bring it within 4 points. They fought until the end, but Henry Ford was unable to close the gap enough. Monroe got the win with a final score of 87-83.
Monroe Community College will advance to the 2nd round to play Johnson County Community College on Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 1:00 PM. Johnson County received a first round bye from the blind draw. Henry Ford Community College will continue play in the consolation bracket at a later determined time.
GAME LEADERS FOR HENRY FORD:
Willie Mustin, 5'10" Soph, 20 pts
Thomas Rudy, 6'3" Fresh, 17 pts
Devin Pankey, 6'4" Fresh, 16 pts
GAME LEADERS FOR MONROE:
Jeron Belin, 6'7" Soph, 25 pts
Mark Lake Jr., 6'0" Soph, 23 pts
Kareem Brown, 6'2" Soph, 21 pts