Feb. 8, 2008

Final Stats

By Anthony Arroyo Journal-Advocate sports reporter

STERLING -- The streak stands at seven in a row for the Northeastern Junior College Plainsmen, after a big second half lifted the team to a 70-59 victory over Lamar Community College Tuesday night.

Northeastern took the regular season series over Lamar, earning a 69-59 victory back in January. NJC is now at an impressive 23-3 on the season, with three tough games to play before the Region IX Tournament.

"No matter who comes in and tries to play their type of game, the outcome has been the same," NJC men's head coach Eddie Trenkle said. "I'm extremely proud of these kids on the work they're putting in. This wasn't a easy win, especially when the boys had to guard for 30 seconds each defensive possession."

Nothing came easy in the first half, as both teams battled back and fourth. Early in the half, sophomore Eric Miller completed a traditional three-point play to give his team a 5-2 advantage.

After Lamar strung off seven points, freshman AJ Wilson made two free throws and sophomore Troy Smith connected on a three to make the score 10-9.

Sophomore Jeron Lewis started putting in work in the inside, connecting on consecutive trips down the court. A nice dunk by sophomore DeRay Wilson saw the Plainsmen advance its small lead to 21-17, but Lamar would create a run off a three-pointer to take a 31-27 lead at halftime.

"We weren't guarding," Trenkle said of the first half. "They slowed down the game and got some open shots and hit them."

Freshman Alex Garcia-Mendoza started the second half with a three-pointer, followed by a monster dunk by AJ Wilson, to give NJC the lead right back at 32-31.

DeRay Wilson connected on a lay-up and would then hit on a deep three-pointer to tie the game at 43.

"We opened the second half getting some easy baskets, and things opened up from there for us," Trenkle said. "We tend to struggle at times with shot selection, but we did a much better job taking the right shots in the second half."

After the three by DeRay, it appeared that Lamar simply ran out of gas on its little engine that could. Lewis hit a field goal that capped off a 16-2 run and gave his team a nine-point lead with seven minutes remaining.

Northeastern would outscore Lamar 18-10 in the last five minutes to close out its victory.

Lewis and Smith each finished with 14 points to lead the way for the Plainsmen. Garcia-Mendoza added 11 off the bench, while sophomore Lawrence Tyson ended his night with 10 points and six assists, also off the bench.

NJC's bench outscored its opponent's bench 27-14. Northeastern also made 11 more free throws than Lamar, which was the victory margin.

The men will have a big showdown with Casper (Wyo.) College Friday night at Jackson/Edwards Arena. Casper gave the Plainsmen their last defeat, a 74-69 decision on Jan. 12.