March 21, 2007

By Anthony Arroyo Journal-Advocate sports reporter

HUTCHINSON, Kan. - The Northeastern Plainsmen appeared to be calm and collective before their game Tuesday night performing their pre-game rituals.

They even looked good during the shoot around just minutes before the game.

Regardless, the team committed 24 turnovers and shot just 46.9 percent from the line as the Plainsmen's chance for a national title has come to an end after taking a 72-62 loss to Itawamba Community College Indians (ICC).

"We did things that we have never done," NJC men's head coach Eddie Trenkel said. "We had our chances. We cut the lead to six, then five, then three on a couple occasions, but we just did some uncharacteristic things."

Uncharacteristic would probably be the right thing to say about the Plainsmen, starting out the game committing 18 turnovers in 20 minutes.

The team just couldn't get into their press breaker and when they did they forced the issue, which translated into ICC points. Itawamba's 31 point half featured 16 of them off turnovers.

"After we got through the first half we didn't have problems breaking their press, so I don't really know what was going on with the guys," Trenkel said.

Early on, Northeastern looked to have things under control. Sophomore Shane Edwards won the tap and fellow sophomore Omar Leary, who both will be attending Colorado State University next year, scored on a lay-up, breaking down his defender for the first two points of the game.

ICC never got on the board until the 13:03 mark in the game, but they only trailed by four points.

Just three minutes later, the game would be tied at eight points apiece midway through the half. A couple of lead changes later and one tie moved the game to 13-13 before the Indians applied the extra defensive pressure. A scoring drought of 5:02 saw the game from a 13-all tie, to a 27-13 deficit before NJC scored again.

The team would trail 31-18 at halftime.

"We just hurt ourselves out there," Trenkel explained. "The guys were getting frustrated out there, doing their own thing and that is not how we play Plainsmen basketball."

The second half was when NJC came out to play but the disadvantaged they faced was one that was too deep to overcome. Northeastern connected on the first basket of the half and cut the lead to under double-digits for the first time in over 10 minutes at 33-24 with 17:39 to go.

Leary, who was limited to 12 minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, swished a three through the nets on the next Plainsmen possession to cut the deficit to six points with still a lot of time to play.

After ICC called a timeout to stop the momentum, the Indians scored on two straight possessions to move their lead back to 10 points. Following those possessions, Edwards picked up his fourth foul just four minutes into the second half.

Eric Miller was asked to play some quality minutes in his absence and came off the bench in nine minutes to score four points and grab five rebounds.

After another run by the Indians to put them up 47-33, Leary would also pick up his fourth, forcing their top scorer to sit down with 13:16 to play. At the 10 minute mark, Coach Trenkel called a timeout to try to give his team a final push.

"I wanted to calm them down and tell them that this was it, this was our season and everything we had worked for," the coach said.

The talk seemed to work, but only in spurts. Northeastern battled back to cut the lead to ten on their first possessions out of the timeout and shorten the deficit to 55-49 with 4:29 left in the game. ICC would then connect on one of their five three-pointers in the game to shoot the lead back to nine.

"We've improved on putting our opponents away when we needed to and they did that to us," Trenkel said. "Good teams do that."

A Rashad Austin lay-up cut the score to 61-56 with just over a minute to go. Trenkel called a timeout to give the team an idea what to do for the next minute, but a conversion by Itawamba on their end and free throws put the game away down the stretch, giving the bad guys the 10 point victory.

The Plainsmen outscore Itawamba 44-41 in the second half. Leary caught fire in the second half, scoring 14 of his16 total points in the final half, connecting on two three's in the process. Omar would also dish out four assists before fouling out with 37.2 seconds left.

Sixth-man candidate Troy Smith scored 12 points and also picked off four steals for the Plainsmen while Austin put together a double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Edwards could never get it going, posting eight and seven respectably.

Sure the chance to win a National Title has been eliminated by the team from Mississippi, but it doesn't mean that the team still can't finish deep in the 16-team tournament. NJC will play Highland Community College after almost winning an upset over Coffeyville Community College in the game after Northeastern's Tuesday night. The tip-off is scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 22 at noon.

Anthony Arroyo can be reached at 522-1990 Ext. 232, or by e-mail: aarroyo@journal-advocate.com.