Neosho men ousted from second round of NJCAA tournament
Gillette (Wyo.) coach Shawn Neary called a timeout with 11.6 seconds to go, trailing Neosho 72-71 in the NJCAA tournament’s second round Tuesday. Gillette freshman Deishauan Booker came back and drove the ball to the basket and laid it in with his left hand, giving the Pronghorns a 73-72 victory and ending Neosho’s first trip to the tourney.
“We just wanted to run our regular out of bounds play,” Neary said. “We’ve ran it about a thousand times before and we told our guys we’re down one, so we’ve got to take the best available shot.”
Neosho, the Region VI automatic-bid winner, led for nearly the entire game. It led by as many as 12 points with 9:28 to go. Gillette then started to battle its way back, getting three straight three-pointers from Cameron Oluyitan to trim Neosho’s lead to 59-53 with just under eight minutes to go.
“We just weren’t closing out, we knew he was a good shooter,” Neosho coach Jeremy Coombs said. “We were in this situation yesterday, instead of being down double digits, we were up double digits today and we just let it slip away from us.”
Neosho’s leading scorer, Richard Granberry, picked up two early fouls, just as he did in Monday’s first-round victory. Gillette’s 6-foot-10 Kavell Bigby-William then switched focus of containing Granberry and went straight to work on the offensive end. Bigby-William finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocked shots.
“We saw yesterday that he got in foul trouble,” Bigby-William said. “Once he picked up his second today, I knew it was my time to go to work. With him being out, that opened up a lot of room in the paint for me.”
Gillette’s Marqueese Grayson scored with 27 seconds remaining to cut Neosho’s lead to 72-71. Neosho threw away a pass against Gillette’s press, leading to Booker’s game-winning layup.
Freddie McSwain led Neosho with 19 points and 11 rebounds, including three highlight-reel dunks. Marc Moon had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Jalen Jackson had 16 points and six boards.
“I’m proud of my team,” Coombs said. “This was a team that I thought could win the title, I really did think that. This will live on as the first-ever Neosho men’s basketball team to make it to the national tournament, this was special.”
NEOSHO: Thompson 2, Downing 5, Lee 2, Moon 16, Griggs 2, Jackson 16, Donart 2, McSwain 19, Granberry 8.
GILLETTE: Farquharson 9, Grayson 9, Thabize 11, Oluyitan 21, Booker 10, Bigby-William 13.
Halftime – Neosho 31, Gillette 28. Three-point shooters – Neosho 5-13 (McSwain 2-3, Jackson 2-4, Moon 1-3, Donart 0-1, Thompson 0-2), Gillette 7-19 (Oluyitan 4-6, Farquharson 2-5, Grayson 1-4, Booker 0-3). Rebounds – Neosho 52 (Moon 12), Gillette 39 (Bigby-William 9). Assists – Neosho 13 (Moon 6), Gillette 17 (Booker 11). Fouls – Neosho 19, Gillette 12. Fouled out – Griggs, Granberry.
This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 7:54 PM with the headline "Neosho men ousted from second round of NJCAA tournament."