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| Mott Community College Wins DII Championship NJCAA Division II Men’s National Basketball Tournament Saturday, March 24, 2007 Danville, IL Monroe Community College (Rochester, NY) 61 Mott Community College (Flint, MI) 75 The final game of the Division II NJCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was held in Danville, IL on Saturday, March 24 th at 8:00 pm. The Mott CC Bears were playing their fourth game in as many days while the Tribunes from Monroe CC received a bye in the first round and were playing their third game of the tournament. The intensity to begin the game was everything you would expect it to be for a National Championship Game. The two teams were battling back and forth to begin the game, matching each other basket for basket until Mott was able pull ahead slightly at 14-8 with 11:35 left in the first half. The two teams were very balanced in scoring with Kevin Tiggs leading the way for Mott as his jumper and lay-up on back to back possessions put them up18-8. A three-pointer by Willie Mustin gave Mott a 21-8 advantage with about 10 minutes left in the first half. Mott CC continued to shoot well from the field as a Thomas Kennedy three pointer pushed the Bears’ lead to 24-8. Kevin Draughon for Monroe was able to get on the board as he hit a shot in the paint, got fouled and made the free throw to complete the three-point play to make the score 24-11. When Mott was forced to call a timeout with 7:08 left in the first half, the Tribunes had cut the lead to 26-15. Jeremie Simmons had the answer for Mott, which was a three as the shot clock was winding down to make it a 14 point game with 5:06 remaining in the half. Monroe’s Chris Rogers was able to get to the free throw line and make up a little ground as his four points put the Tribunes down only by 10. Kevin Tiggs was able to hit on a three from the corner to extend the lead and Lorenzo McClelland’s free throw put the Bears up 35-21 with 2 minutes left in the half. Kevin Tiggs continued to do what he has done all tournament long and that is make his shots. He had 14 points early on for the Bears and had two of them to make the score 37-23. Tiggs added two free throws before the half was over and Monroe scored 4 quick points to close out the half and the half-time score was 39-27 in favor of Mott CC. Kevin Tiggs led all scorers at the half with 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting; he also led all players in rebounding with 6. Chris Rogers was the leading scorer for Monroe CC with 10 first half points. Vince Mosley led the team in rebounding with 5. Monroe CC was able to come out of the locker room and start the second half with 4 straight points to trip the lead to 39-31. The Bears answered right back though, with 5 straight of their own; 3 by Thomas Kennedy and 2 by Terrance Watson. Jonathan Moore from Monroe was able to hit a three from the corner to make it a 10 point game, but a tip in and a lay-up by Tiggs on the other end brought the lead back to 14, 48-34. Tiggs continued to hurt the Tribunes, but he was taken out of the game when he committed his 3 rd four around the 14 minute mark of the second half. Monroe kept getting to the free throw line and that is where they cut the lead to 53-43 on a three point play by Chris Rogers. Every time the Tribunes would get the lead close to single-digits, the Bears found an answer. Monroe CC went to a full-court press for a majority of the second half, but the ball-handlers for Mott were able to handle the pressure. At the 10:04 mark, Monroe cut the lead to 9 points on a Vince Mosley reverse lay-up which forced Mott CC coach Steve Schmidt to call a time-out. Out of the time-out, Jeremie Simmons was called for a charge on a drive and Kevin Draughon hit a bucket in the lane and lead was down to 7, 56-49. Kevin Tiggs checked back into the ball game after sitting due to foul trouble and quickly made a different. He chased down a rebound and was able to draw two fouls on Monroe players, the second of which sent him to the line to shoot a one and one where he hit two free throws. On the next possession, after a Monroe miss, Tiggs took the backside of an alley-oop and slammed it down to make the score 62-50. Monroe was able to cut into the lead and make it 62-54 with exactly 5:00 to play. Mott CC then called a time-out after a missed shot by Oliver Prince from Monroe. The Bears used all of the time on the shot clock coming out of the time-out, but could not get a bucket. After a Monroe miss on the other end, Tiggs was fouled and shooting two shots with the score 62-54 and 3:39 left to play. He hit both shots to extend the lead back to 10 points. Tiggs was the difference for the Bears on Saturday night. When he was in the game, the Bears played better and he took over. When he was out of the game, the Tribunes from Monroe were able to fight their way back in. With 1:58 left to play in the game and after a Terrence Watson dunk, the lead was 68-54 and Kevin Tiggs had 32 points. After all of the final free throws by Mott in the final minute, the Bears walked away with the championship trophy, beating the Monroe CC Tribunes, 75-61. Mott CC Terrence Watson – 6’5” SO – 11 pts Jeremie Simmons – 6’2” FR – 7 pts Kevin Tiggs – 6’4” SO – 32 pts Willie Mustin – 6’0” FR – 12 pts Monroe CC Jonathon Moore – 6’0” FR – 11 pts Vince Mosley – 6’6” SO – 8 pts Kevin Draughon – 6’4” SO – 10 pts Chris Rogers – 6’6” SO – 15 pts |