March 28, 2024

By the skin of their teeth

Late steal keeps national title hopes alive

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DANVILLE, Ill. – With 6.8 seconds left to play, Erie Community College inbounded the ball to Kyle Harris and the junkyard dog back court of Southwestern Community College pounced again.

Ryan Warren sprawled onto a ball he helped force loose at center court before tossing the rock to Khallid Edwards who was able to get it away from danger and seal the Spartans’ spot in the NJCAA Div. II National Tournament Final Four with a 68-66 victory over Erie CC.

“We call him first team, as in first team defense. Tony Allen with it,” said Edwards, referring to a remark Allen (a former lockdown NBA defender) made while playing defense in the postseason.

“Ryan just had a good instinctive play,” said Southwestern head coach Todd Lorensen. “Khallid did a good job of cutting him (Harris) off on the sideline there ... Just a big, big time play by Ryan Warren.”

Southwestern’s Terence Shelby Jr. scored just one point in the first half, largely due to foul trouble, but refused to become complacent in the second half. SWCC’s regular season scoring leader sunk five 3-pointers in the second half, none bigger than a triple from way downtown to put the Spartans up 67-61 with a minute left in regulation. He finished with 16 points and four rebounds.

Chad Moran helped turned the tide in the Spartans’ favor multiple times, including three points the old fashioned way after receiving a pass from a soaring Edwards. With the freebie, Moran pushed the lead to six late in regulation.

After Erie responded with a triple, Moran drew a double team on SWCC’s next possession, but didn’t panic and found Alijah Thomas wide open under the basket for an easy layup.

Moran was 6 of 10 from the field in 33 minutes of work and threw down two different dunks.

Thomas scored 15 points for the Southwestern on 4 of 8 shooting and 6 of 8 from the free throw line. The sophomore guard uncharacteristically missed two free throws late, but it didn’t come back to bite the Spartans as Erie missed a free throw in the final 10 seconds that would have tied the contest.

Edwards also missed one of two free throws in the closing seconds that would have put the Spartans up three, but Lorensen isn’t worried about it going forward.

“They were in pressure moments and that impacted the shots, but if we’re in the same situation tomorrow there is nobody else I would rather have on the line than Alijah and Khallid,” said Lorensen.

Erie’s ability to make crunch-time offensive plays allowed the Kats to hang around late. The Spartans continually pushed the lead to double digits, but time and time again Erie went down the floor and hit a tough shot.

Lorensen mentioned that his defensive units did what the coaching staff wanted them to do, but Erie continued to make tough shots to hang around down the stretch.

Offensive struggles

The Kats threw a lot of different looks at the Spartans, mixing in a trapping zone, man-to-man and full court pressure to try and catch Southwestern off guard.

Lorensen thought his players did a better job of decision making in the second half, despite only scoring 33 points.

He noted that instead of trying to get past defenders that were set, the Spartans made an extra pass or two to get a better shot.

“We were trying to finish over guys who were walled up,” said Lorensen. “We did a much better job in the second half of finding guys like Terence open threes and thank goodness he knocked them down for us.”

Southwestern ended the quarterfinal contest with 17 assists on 21 made field goals.

Five guard lineup

It’s a strategy that’s all too common in professional basketball leagues and has slowly crept its way into the

Spartan lineup as the season has progressed.

Lorensen has run the lineup of Thomas, Edwards, Warren, Moran and Shelby Jr. more and more as team’s have upped the defensive pressure on the Spartans.

The lineup has not only worked to escape opponent pressure, but also to speed up opposing offenses with the unit’s explosive, side-to-side quickness.

The Spartans poked away six steals from the Kats and forced 23 turnovers.

Another reason Lorensen had stuck with the five guard lineup is Gatdoar Kueth has struggled with foul trouble in the opening two games, seeing just 41 minutes of action in the first two national tournament games.

The lineup has been routinely effective, but the Spartans face a much lengthier opponent in the Final Four. One that may not allow Southwestern to use three guards under 6-0 due to its size, ability to get to the paint and finish over defenders.

UP NEXT – No. 5 Southwestern will get all it can handle against the top seed Triton Trojans, a team that will once again have an extra day of rest and a full 24-hour head start in scouting.

The Trojans are a long, athletic team that likes to get to the basket whenever possible and it shows in the stat column as they are shooting close to 50 percent from the floor on the year.

Southwestern will need to defend the paint and stay out of foul trouble if it wants its second straight appearance in the national title game.

The Spartans and the Trojans will tip-off at 6:30 p.m. today (Friday) and will be immediately followed by the second semifinal between No. 2 Pima and No. 11 Delta College.

The Spartans’ victory marks the fourth consecutive year an ICCAC school has made the Final Four.

Running score by half

SWCC – 35 68

ECC – 27 66

SWCC (FG FT PTS) – Totals 21 16-24 68. Chad Moran 6 5-7 17, Terence Shelby Jr. 5 1-2 16, Alijah Thomas 4 6-8 15, Khallid Edwards 2 1-2 7, Ryan Warren 2 1-1 6, Gatdoar Kueth 1 1-1 3, D’Marqueyon Whittington 1 0-0 3, Rasheed Barze 0 1-2 1. 3-point goals – 10 (Shelby Jr. 5, Edwards 2, Thomas 1, Whittington 1, Warren 1). Rebounds – 26 (Moran 6, Kueth 5, Shelby Jr. 4, Thomas 3). Assists – 17 (Edwards 6, Thomas 5, Warren 2, Kueth 2). Steals – 6 (Edwards 3, Thomas 2, Barze). Team fouls – 17. Fouled out – Kueth.

ECC (FG FT PTS) – Totals – 24 8-14 66. Shevon Anisca 7 3-3 18, Michael Motley 6 3-4 16, Pedro Marquez 4 1-2 13, Kyle Harris 4 0-0 10, Kasey Walker-Gregg 2 1-2 7, Marcus Richardson 1 0-3 2. 3-point goals – 10 (Marquez 4, Walker-Gregg 2, Harris 2, Anisca 1, Motley 1).Rebounds – 36 (Anisca 11, Harris 9, Walker-Gregg 4, Motley 3). Assists – 15 (Harris 4, Anisca 4, Walker-Gregg 3). Team fouls – 22. Fouled out – Motley.