Bulldogs take down NE Tigers for Region XXIII Championship, 81-56
CLINTON --- The Holmes Community College Bulldogs captured the 2021 NJCAA Region XXIII Championship here Friday night at Mississippi College with an 81-56 dominating performance over the Northeast Mississippi Community College Tigers.
On their way to the championship, the Bulldogs took down No. 12 seed Gulf Coast in Goodman, 96-89, No. 4 seed LSU-Eunice in Eunice, La., 79-64, No. 1 seed Pearl River in Clinton, 61-58, and No. 2 seed Northeast to secure the championship. This will make the Bulldogs' third trip to the NJCAA Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas under Head Coach Jason Flanigan after appearing in 2015 and 2018 prior to this year.
With the win, the Bulldogs went to 15-3 overall and now will await their opponent in the NJCAA Tournament which begins on Monday, April 22. The NJCAA will hold the Division I Men's Selection Show at 6 p.m. Sunday night on https://www.njcaa.org/network. The NJCAA Division I Men's Tournament features 24 teams - 16 automatic district qualifiers and eight additional at-large selections which will be announced during the selection show.
Brandon Weatherspoon set the tone early for the Bulldogs by draining a three-pointer. Tyler Talley hit another three with 18:07 to go before Weatherspoon followed with another three to put Holmes up 9-4 with 16:48 left in the first half.
A Jordan Brister bucket with 11:08 to play in the half pushed the lead to 11. The lead stretched to 14 points with 4:20 to play when Kaleb Higgins hit a three. The teams traded baskets until the end of the half when a Weatherspoon slam just before the buzzer gave Holmes a 32-24 lead.
A Talley three-pointer put the Bulldogs up 11 with 18 minutes left in the game before Higgins hit a three pointer and a free throw increased the lead to 13 with 15:10 to play. The Bulldogs stretched the lead to 17 points at 47-30 after a three from Talley and a two from Ahmad Anthony.
Darrius Clark hit one of two free throws with 11:31 to stretch the lead to 19. The lead remained 19 with 9:55 when Olanrewaju Olayinka slammed one home to make it 58-39 before Higgins stretched it to 21 after two made free throws with 9:31 to go.
Talley stretched it to 22 with 7:38 to play on another three pointer. After Northeast made a slight run, the Bulldogs took it back to 20 when Olayinka scored with 3:45 to play to make it 73-53. Asa Williams hit a three with 1:59 to play and Zanteous Thornton scored down low to stretch the lead to 25 in the final minute for the Bulldogs.
Weatherspoon led the Bulldogs with 22 points while Talley had 20 and Higgins had 14. Weatherspoon had eight rebounds in the game to lead the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs shot 47.3 percent from the floor (26-of-55), 44.4 percent from the three-point line (12-of-27) and 68 percent from the free throw line (17-of-25).
The Tigers shot 28 percent from the floor and only 9.7 percent from the three-point line and 82.6 percent from the free throw line.