By Paul Gotham
FRANKLIN, MA — Joe Clarke (New Rochelle, NY/ New Rochelle) led five in double figures as the No. 11 Dean College Bulldogs defeated the No. 14 Monroe Community College Tribunes 99-89 in the NJCAA District 2 Championship at Pieri Gymnasium, Saturday afternoon.
Sophomore forward Jamal Reuben Brockton, MA/Brockton) scored 11 of his 17 in the first half as the Bulldogs took a 19-point lead into the locker room. Reuben connected on three straight behind the arc in the final 2:30 of the first stanza pushing Dean to its largest lead of the game.
“The difference was on the defensive end,” Monroe coach Jerry Burns said. “We’ve preached all year that you got to lock down. Ninety-nine points. Fifty-five in the first half. If you can’t defend you can’t win.”
Five different Bulldogs connected from long range as Dean hit 10 of 18 behind the arc in the first half and 13 of its first 23 attempts from long range.
“They shot the heck out of the ball,” Burns continued. “Some of those were tough shots, but our defense was terrible.”
Dean wasted little time jumping to a double-digit lead.
Antonio Pires (Carver, MA/Carver) connected behind the arc on the Bulldogs first shot of the game. It was a sign of things to come. The freshman guard scored nine in the opening moments of the game. His step-back 3 gave Dean a 12-2 lead.
Dean pushed the lead to 15, at 24-9 when Keyon Armstrong (Brockton, MA/Wakefield Memorial) completed a 4-pt. play.
“We did a good job attacking their pressure,” Burns explained. “But our defense just wasn’t there.”
Monroe trimmed the deficit to six.
Artice Jackson (Owings Mills, MD/ Milford Mills) took a Tashawn Desir (Brooklyn, NY/NIA Prep) feed and drilled a catch-and-shoot trey. The duo combined on a spectacular alley oop in transition, and MCC trailed 26-20.
That was as close as Monroe would get in the half.
Monroe cut the lead to 10 with 11 minutes remaining.
Jackson drilled a three from the top, and MCC trailed 69-59.
Dean responded when David Seymour (Amityville, NY/Amityville Memorial) hit a pull-up jumper.
“I don’t think we did good enough even on the close outs,” Burns added. “We were slow.”
Andre McFarlane (Queens, NY/North Queens) made it a 10-point game again when he took a Davon Jackson (Odenton, MD/Old Mill) feed and scored in the lane.
Monroe eventually cut the deficit to single-digits.
TJ Davis (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) hit a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from the left corner to make it an 89-80 game.
An Elijah Tillman (Garnerville, NY/North Rockland) baby hook in the lane made it an eight-point affair at 92-84 with 2:51 remaining.
Monroe got as close as six when Anthony Hemingway (Brooklyn, NY/NIA School) converted a layup with 1:05 for a 94-88 game.
“The kids never gave up,” Burns stated. “But we were fighting more on the offensive end trying to score than we were trying to get stops on the defensive end. We also missed a lot of free throws.”
Reuben finished with 17 for Dean. Clarke added 19 while Armstrong and Pires chipped in 12 apiece. William March (Boston, MA/East Boston) scored 10.
The Bulldogs hit 13 of 25 (52 percent) behind the arc.
Hemingway posted a game-high 28. Artice Jackson added 16. Desir had 17 and 7 seven assists in his final game as a Tribune. Davis scored 12.
Monroe finished the season 23-7. The loss was just their second setback since December 8th.
Dean improved to 21-3 and advanced to the Men’s Basketball National Championship in Danville, Illinois from March 18th -22nd.
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