Surviving, advancing

DANVILLE, Ill. — Southwestern Community College’s men’s basketball team stared the end of its dreams of the school’s first-ever national championship in any sport squarely in the face in the second half of Thursday’s NJCAA Division II national quarterfinal against Pima.

Brodric Thomas and the rest of the top-ranked and top-seeded Spartans refused to let the dream die.

It lives on for one more day.

Behind a huge second half from Thomas, the top-seeded Spartans survived to reach their first national semifinal with an 81-75 win at Mary Miller Gymnasium on the campus of Danville Area Community College.

Southwestern (34-1) faces Richard Bland, Virgina (30-4), tonight (Friday) in the national semifinals at 6:30 p.m.

Richard Bland, based out of Petersburg, Virginia, advanced with a 71-65 win over Parkland, Illinois, in another quarterfinal Thursday night.

“We’re fighters. That’s what we do, we fight back,” said sophomore Lavon Hightower. “We’re mentally tough. Coach (Lorensen) makes us be tough.”

Thomas poured in 25 points, including 9-of-10 at the free throw line.

Thomas’ teammates kept keeping him the rock. The sophomore from Bolingbrook, Illinois, kept taking advantage.

“They believed in me,” Thomas said. “They told me to step up. I guess it was my time.”

Tuesday, it was KeShawn Wilson that had the hot hand.

Thursday it was Thomas.

“That’s what’s great about this team,” Lorensen said. “Tuesday it was KeShawn. (Thursday) it was Brodric.”

Thomas’ athleticism made him a matchup nightmare for Pima’s inside players.

“He’s a good player,” said Pima coach Brian Peabody. “They do a good job in their spacing, putting you in a bad spot.”

Those points sparked an offense that had gone ice cold late in the first half and early in the second.

Over the course of the end of the first half and first six minutes of the second half, the Spartans missed 14-of-15 shots and had a number of turnovers.

It coincided with Pima switching from a 3-2 zone to a man-to-man.

The change sent the Spartans into a bit of a funk offensively. Southwestern missed 14 of its next 15 shots and had three turnovers as well.

At the same time, the Aztecs caught fire, going on a 28-6 run that turned a 35-19 Spartan lead into a 47-41 edge in favor of the Aztecs.

Southwestern’s mental resolve was at a crossroads, with the dream of a national championship seemingly starting to slip away.

“We have great camaraderie,” said sophomore Jamil Maddred. “We had to get stops. Once we got stops, that gave us energy.”

Khallid Edwards sparked the offense with a three that cut the lead to 47-44.

That sparked the offense. Southwestern went on a 10-3 run to take a 51-50 lead.

Pima edged ahead 55-52 on an Emilio Acedo triple.

Thomas took over from there, scoring seven unanswered points as the Spartans led 59-52.

Southwestern did not trail again.

The Spartan defense stepped up with stop after stop.

“Our whole season has been based on defense,” Thomas said.

The lead was seven several times.

Pima cut it to three, 78-75 on a Alize Travis three with 50 seconds left.

Southwestern missed a shot on its next possession, but Jordan Johnson came up with the Spartans’ most important offensive rebound of the season to keep the possession alive. Later, Johnson hit a pair of free throws to push the lead to 80-75 with 15 seconds left.

Southwestern’s defensive rebounding, the one down spot in Tuesday’s 94-69 win over College of Southern Maryland, was extremely effective throughout. While Pima had plenty of size on the front line, standing 6-foot-9, 6-8 and 6-6, Southwestern’s positioning and speed countered Pima's height disadvantage.

Lorensen’s scrappy group found a way to outrebound Pima 37-34.

“Credit Jamil, Lavon, Brodric — they’re a little undersized, but they play their tails off,” Lorensen said. “To see them battle in there and come up with good defensive rebounds was big.”

Maddred snagged 10 rebounds, while Thomas had eight and KeShawn Wilson added nine.

Thomas noted Pima’s size was similar to that of Indian Hills.

The Spartans fared well in that game as well.

“We had to battle,” Thomas said. “Me, Lavon, Jamil had to box them out and we had the guards come in and clean up everything.”

Southwestern’s defensive rebounds helped keep the Pima run from getting more out of hand when the Spartan offense was sputtering.

“If we wouldn’t have rebounded the ball well, we would’ve been in a world of hurt,” Lorensen said. “Credit Jamil, Lavon, Brodric. They’re a little bit undersized, but they play their butts off. It’s fun to see them battle in there, come up with good defensive rebounds.”

“Defense won us the game tonight.”

Southwestern was on fire early, and from all sorts of players. Thomas had a three early, Lavon Hightower had a couple of threes, Maddred hit a couple open shots, Thomas added a thunderous slam dunk and Alijah Thomas buried a triple as the Spartans raced out to a 35-19 lead.

“We’re capable of going on some really strong streaks,” Lorensen said. “The guys did a good job of being unselfish. We’re good shooters. We got good looks and if you have that happen, you’re going to make some of those.”

The Spartans’ shooters were taking advantage of open spaces against Pima’s 3-2 zone.

“We didn’t know if they were going to come out man or zone,” Lorensen said. “We assumed we’d see zone at some point. We’re comfortable with either type of defense. We have a lot of guys who can stretch the floor and shoot the three, and also put it on the floor and get to the tin. We did a nice job of getting the ball inside in the pain, finding shooters and knocking them down.”

Pima was struggling offensively, and not getting very many second chance opportunities.

“The first half, we did things that were out of character,” Peabody said. “The Pima way is the extra pass, the extra pass, the extra pass. The ball was sticking. That’s not how we play.”

The Spartans were certainly feeling good, with the game seemingly well in control.

That’s when Pima made their run.

Pima switched to a man defense.

The Spartans struggled to handle it.

“We got a little too excited from the standpoint of we had two or three careless travels. Even with that, our guys tried to do a little too much one-on-one,” Lorensen said. “That’s the beauty of our team is if we space ourselves offensively, pass the ball, cut hard, we’re really hard to guard. When we start playing one-on-one, anybody can guard us.”

Pima — (75) 35-40. Totals — 26 14-22. Scoring — Damon Dubots 3 0-1 6. Deion James 3 5-8 12. Alize Travis 3 0-0 8. Jacob Anastasi 2 2-2 6. Emilio Acedo 7 5-6 24. Isaiah Murphy 5 2-5 13. IIunga Moise 3 0-0 6. 3-point field goals — 9 (Emilio Acedo 5, Aliza Travis 2, Deion James 1, Isaiah Murphy 1). Assists — 13 (Alize Travis 5, Isaiah Murphy 4, Jacob Anastasi 3, Damon Dubots 1). Steals — 4 (Isaiah Murphy 2, IIunga Moise 1, Alize Travis 1). Turnovers — 13. Fouls — 22. Fouled out — Deion James, Jacob Anastasi. Technicals — none.

Southwestern (81) 38-43. Totals — 25 19-27. Scoring — Brodric Thomas 6 9-10 25. Jamil Maddred 4 1-4 11. Jordan Johnson 2 3-4 7. Calvin Chambers 4 3-5 13. KeShawn Wilson 1 1-3 4. Alijah Thomas 2 1-2 4. Lavon Hightower 4 0-0 11. Khallid Edwards 2 0-0 5. 3-point field goals — 12 (Brodric Thomas 3, Lavon Hightower 3Jamil Maddred 2, Calvin Chambers 2, KeShawn Wilson 1, Khallid Edwards 1). Rebounds — 37 (Jamil Maddred 10, KeShawn Wilson 9, Brodric Thomas 8, Calvin Chambers 4, Jordan Johnson 3, Lavon Highower 2, Alijah Thomas 1). Assists — 12 (Jamil Maddred 3, Calvin Chambers 2, KeShawn Wilson 2, Alijah Thomas 2, Lavon Hightower 2). Steals — 4 (Jordan Johnson 2, Calvin Chambers 1, Alijah Thomas 1). Turnovers — 18. Fouls — 21. Fouled out — none. Technicals — Khallid Edwards, coach Todd Lorensen.