Neosho wins its opener at NJCAA men’s tournament
Neosho’s first trip to the NJCAA national tournament will be a memorable one. The No. 9-seeded Panthers used a strong performance toward the end of the first half to beat take down No. 24-seed Harford College (Md.) 69-57 at the Sports Arena.
After finding themselves down 17-6 with 9:35 to go in the first half, Neosho coach Jeremy Coombs called a timeout. From there, the Panthers (30-5) found their game.
“Obviously being our first at the national tournament, I thought we played real tight early,” Coombs said. “Then we started to settle in and play the way we wanted to play.”
Neosho used a 10-0 run to cut down the deficit to one with 6:42 to go in the first half, thanks to Jalen Jackson’s two three-pointers. Jackson finished with a game-high 20 points off of bench, including 4 of 6 from behind the arc.
“I knew our team needed some scoring,” Jackson said. “We had to pick up our defense, I felt good, I just got going and that’s all I had to do.”
Jackson missed his first two three-point shots before making four straight.
“I focused on my shot, I had to bend my knees, I wasn’t doing that at first,” Jackson said.
The Panthers ended the first half on a 7-0 run to take a 31-27 lead into the halftime break. Neosho grew the lead and never trailed in the second half.
“If you follow this team, you’ll know that we find ourselves in a hole pretty often,” Coombs said. “The situation we’ve been in before, so there was no need to panic or anything, just battle back and settle in. This is the national tournament, in front of a lot of fans, we just had to get some kinks out.”
With two fouls early in the first half on leading scorer Richard Granberry, Neosho’s Daran Lee and Jalen Jackson filled in well for the 6-foot-8 sophomore. Lee finished with 13 points, 6-of-8 from the field, while adding eight rebounds. The Panthers’ bench outscored Harford 40-20.
“We have to come in and pick up the slack,” Lee said. “That’s what we did today. That’s been our duty all season long and it wasn’t any different today.”
Neosho committed 23 turnovers to Harford’s eight, but Harford shot 23.1 percent.
“I think the goosebumps are all gone,” Coombs said. “We’ve got one win in the tournament under our belt and we’ll have to keep doing that the rest of the week. It’s not going to get any easier from here on out, that’s why we’re here.”
Neosho will take on No. 8 Gillette (Wyo., 32-1) at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the round of 16. Host Hutchinson Community College plays its opener in the same round at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
HARFORD (MD.): McDonald 15, Cole 5, Johnson 4, Ogbonna 13, Williams 4, Williams 5, Robinson 6, Thompson 3, Kwarteng 2.
NEOSHO: Thompson 3, Downing 4, Lee 13, Moon 12, Jackson 20, Donart 7, McSwain 8, Granberry 2.
Halftime – Neosho 31, Harford 27. Three-point shooting – Harford 8-35 (McDonald 4-15, Thompson 1-1, Cole 1-2, Hines 1-6, Williams 1-7, Johnson 0-1, Warren 0-1, Ogbonna 0-1, Wiley 0-1), Neosho 7-18 (Jackson 4-6, Donart 2-4, Thompson 1-4, Lee 0-1, Moon 0-1, Sharp 0-1, Vandiver 0-1). Rebounds – Harford 42 (Thompson 9), Neosho (three with 8). Assists – Harford 7 (McDonald 4), Neosho 13 (Jackson 6). Fouls – Harford 21, Neosho 17. Fouled out – Hines, Griggs.
This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Neosho wins its opener at NJCAA men’s tournament."