Blazers Headed to Herkimer, Capture 3rd District Title in 4 Years

DALLAS – Blazer Blue was a freight train that couldn't be stopped.

Dallas College North Lake's sixth-ranked men's basketball team beat a Cinderella-hot Dallas College Brookhaven team 101-79 Saturday in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III South Central District championship at Dallas College Richland.

It will send the Blazers on to the NJCAA Division III National Tournament March 11-14 in Herkimer, New York. It is the third trip to the national tournament in head coach Josh Mills' four years on the sidelines. North Lake, which owns the most national championships (5) in NJCAA history, will be making its 10^th appearance at the national tournament.

"It's super special," Mills said. "Having one player in Santana Spivey, who played college basketball last year, everybody else freshman. They've done a great job of learning and adjusting to the game to go win a championship. So we're going to go up to New York, and hope to bring back a national championship. That's the goal."

The goal Saturday was to hone in defensively on a streaking Brookhaven team that Mills said could make noise at the national tournament. And the Blazers (22-10) did that in opening up an 18-3 lead behind its defense and some sizzling Santana shooting.

Spivey canned five of North Lake's seven three-pointers – all in the first half – to match his season high.

"Santana's always been able to shoot it," Mills said. "That's why I recruited him. I recruited him out of high school. He decided to go someplace else. Then he got smart and came back because he wanted to win a national championship or at least compete for one. That's what always attracted me to him – a shooter with size. Where he's improved the most is defensively. He's one of our best rebounders because he boxes out every time. He does a good job of getting back on defense whenever we're shooting the ball to prevent other teams from getting fastbreak opportunities. He's done an amazing job adjusting and being a solid help defender. It's hard for us to take him out once we put him in. I'm really happy to have him and coach him."

Spivey finished with 23 points. Zaedyn Owens had 24, including 15 in the second half. Zach Thompson had 15 points, and Romiel Carter 14.

"I just feel like the goal was super wide for me," Spivey said. "I felt like I was just on fire the whole time."

Spivey's third triple came before the 8:00 mark as the Blazers built a 20-point lead. Tyler Targonski left a floater hanging in the air that Carter sent back, despite crashing to the floor, and the bucket was awarded to the Bears guard. That made it 35-17. And even after Brookhaven's Jovan Danner, who finished with 25 points, hit a step-back jumper to seemingly pull a shift in the Bears' direction, North Lake found itself in front 44-22. Brookhaven's Luke Archibald hit a high-arcing jump hook to make it 49-30 to close the first half.

Archibald finished with 20 points, and Anshuman Deora 13 for the Bears.

Archibald hit a 3 from the corner that pulled Brookhaven within 65-48 with 11:33 to play. That came during a stretch when his offense caught fire. He sank two free throws 27 seconds later before canning another triple around the 9:30 mark as the Bears got within 69-55. Carter got free down low on a feed from Elijah Black scored, was fouled and sank a free throw to push North Lake's lead out to 73-55 with just over nine minutes remaining.

Danner hit a fadeaway three minutes later as the Bears stayed within 16. Owens sank a pair of free throws on two occasions over a 20-second span to help North Lake maintain the separation, and the Blazers ran away with it down the stretch.

Now the Blazers will have an opportunity to run into March with the biggest basketball stage left ahead.

"It feels amazing to be (district) champs, and be able to go to New York and go to the national tournament," Spivey said. "I feel like we're able to compete in the national tournament. I feel like we could win this whole thing."