Greyhounds Win District Title, Advance to Second National Tournament
The Greyhounds broke open the game midway through the first half and never trailed again, taking an 83-71 victory over the Metropolitan Community College Wolves to win the Central Plains District Championship Saturday at The Dog House in West Memphis.
The Greyhounds broke open the game midway through the first half and never trailed again, taking an 83-71 victory over the Metropolitan Community College Wolves to win the Central Plains District Championship Saturday at The Dog House in West Memphis.
Trailing 13-12, the Greyhounds got a three-pointer from Jesse Washington at the 13:07 mark and never trailed again and took a 41-28 lead into halftime. Then in the second half, the Wolves battled back and slowly cut into the lead behind three Clarence Johnson IV three-pointers and eventually got it to 65-62 on a Jacques Thomas layup with 6:24 remaining. After the Greyhounds got back up by 7 points, the Wolves' Najee Williams hit a three-pointer to cut it back to 73-69 with 3:41 left to play. But the Greyhounds responded with a Braxtyn McCuien jumper off a pass from Kyrin Dock, then after a defensive stop, McCuien returned the favor with a pass to Dock on a backdoor layup and the Greyhounds led 77-69 with 2:51 left. Metropolitan was held to just 2 points the rest of the way.
Metropolitan (19-11) was held to 20 points below their scoring average of 91 points per game, and shot just 40.7% from the field despite going 8-of-20 (40.0%) from the three-point line. But the Greyhounds shot 49.2% from the field, and controlled the boards 40-31 while forcing 14 turnovers and committing just 13.
Christian Thompson led the Greyhounds with 19 points and 8 rebounds, and Jesse Washington scored 17 points to go with 5 boards and 4 assists. Jailen Anderson and Braxtyn McCuien both scored 13 points and dished out 4 assists each with McCuien also collecting a game-high 9 rebounds. Je'marion Westbrook collected 9 points and 4 rebounds while Kyrin Dock chipped in 6 points to go with 5 boards off the bench.
ASU Mid-South (23-10) now has a regular season Region 2 title, a Region 2 Tournament title, and now the Central Plains District Championship while earning the program's second berth into the NJCAA National Tournament. Seeding will be released Tuesday for the National Tournament which takes place in Danville, Illinois, March 21-25.
