 The final game of the NJCAA Division II Men's National Basketball
Tournament featured the reigning national champion, Lincoln College,
and the top-seeded Mott Community College.The national
championship atmosphere was definitely present for this game with
the arena filled to capacity. Lincoln jumped out to a quick 9-2
lead, forcing Mott to burn a timeout and reset their focus. Mott
struggled to get any offense going in the beginning minutes of the
game.
Lincoln led 15-9 at the midway point of the first half and the
offense for both teams was relatively stagnant. By the seven-minute
mark, Lincoln's Kiel Turpin had a monstrous transition dunk that
kept the momentum with Lincoln. Mott head coach Steve Schmidt had to
burn another timeout in yet another attempt to get his team out of
their funk.
Lincoln kept things rolling and built their lead to 10 points
with six minutes left in the half. West Dawson played well on both
ends of the floor for Lincoln, scoring nine early points and
grabbing a few big rebounds. Mott's scoring frustrations endured
throughout the entire first half as they were able to get only 21
points on the board. The Lynx led 33-21 at the half.
Lincoln's Turpin started the second half off with a bang, with a
dunk and a three-point play. Lincoln led by as much as 17 points
early on in the second half. Mott put on the full-court pressure to
try to leverage a comeback, but Lincoln handled the pressure in
stride and maintained a healthy lead.
Although the lead remained with Lincoln, the atmosphere and
physical nature of the game felt as if it was a tied game. Each
possession was a grind, but Mott struggled to put the ball in the
basket.
Mott had another setback as their top scorer, Mike Brigham, got
his fourth foul and was benched with about nine minutes to play. The
next couple of minutes were tense as the end of the game was in
sight. Mott caused some key turnovers and cut the lead to 12 points,
but Lincoln fired right back to go up 15 points with less than seven
minutes to play.
Brigham checked back into the game and gave a spark to Mott after
a couple of big baskets, helping cut Lincoln's lead to eight points
with three minutes to play. After a Lincoln timeout, Mott cut the
lead to six points with 2 1/2 minutes to play. Demetrius Miller made
some big shots for Mott that uplifted their spirits. However,
shortly after those shots Brigham received his fifth foul and was
disqualified from the game.
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Mott kept fighting and cut the lead to four points with just over
one minute left to play. Lincoln hit two free throws to go up six
and Turpin got a big block on the other end. Mott was forced to foul
with 52 seconds left. Lincoln got up seven points after making one
of two free throws, and Mott got a bucket to cut it down to five
points with 35 seconds to play. Lincoln was able to avoid a foul and
got an easy bucket. Mott would continue to foul but it was too big a
gap to recover from.
Lincoln College went on to claim back-to-back NJCAA championships
with the victory.
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Game leaders:
Mott Community College:
-
Mike Brigham,
6-foot-6 sophomore: 15 points, 10 rebounds
-
Demetrius Miller,
6-foot-1 sophomore: 16 points
-
Doug Anderson, 6-foot-6 sophomore: 14
points, 12 rebounds
Lincoln College:
-
West Dawson, 6-foot-4
sophomore: 20 points, 7 rebounds
-
Kiel Turpin,
6-foot-11 sophomore: 19 points, 7 rebounds
-
Tylon Deal, 5-11
freshman: 10 points
-
Tony Frazier, 6-3 freshman: 10 points
Box score
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Online:
Lincoln
College men's basketball
NJCAA tournament
[Text from
NCJAA recap file received]
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