NJCAA's best in Herkimer for Division III men's basketball tournament
HERKIMER - Herkimer College is not participating in the NJCAA's Division III men's basketball tournament this year but the Generals will have a good view of their neighbors from Mohawk Valley and Fulton-Montgomery community colleges an 10 other schools as a first-time tournament host.
Twelve teams will will be in Herkimer for play starting Wednedsay and continuing through Saturday's championship game. Fulton-Montgomery, the Region III champion, is ranked sixth in the nation and seeded sixth for the tournament while Mohawk Valley, an at-large selection ranked 14th is seeded ninth.
Fulton-Montgomery's Raiders and Mohawk Valley's Hawks will try to extend a streak that has seen a Region III team in the finals of the last three tournaments, starting with Herkimer's 2019 national championship run. Mohawk Valley was the 2020 runner-up and Genesee Community College finished second last year; there was no 2021 tournament.
The top four seeds - No. 1 Sandhills Community College, 2020 champion from Pine Hurst, North Carolina, No. 2 Dallas College-North Lake, the defending champion, No. 3 Brookdale Community College from New Jersey, and No. 4 Northern Essex Community College from Haverhill, Massachusetts - have first round byes and will play
quarterfinals Thursday against the winners of Wednesday's games played by the fifth through 12th seeds.
The semifinals will be played Friday with the championship game scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday when third- and fifth-place games will also be contested.
Admission is $5 each day with tickets transacted for cash at the door. Children under 12 will be admitted for free.
Opening Day
Mohawk Valley (26-3), the tournament's closest thing to a home team, plays the tournament's opening game at noon Wednesday against Maryland's Community College of Baltimore County, another at-large team seeded eighth with a 24-4 record. The winner plays at 2 pm. Thursday against Sandhills (28-3).
Fulton-Montgomery (20-6) plays the Wednesday nightcap at 6 p.m. against College of DuPage (20-13), the 11th seed from Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The winner plays Thursday's 8 p.m. game against Brookdale (27-3) which spent six weeks at No. 1 around the holidays this season.
Wednesday's 2 p.m. game pits No. 5 Northampton Community College (28-3) of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania against No. 12 Dutchess Community College (17-12) from Poughkeepsie. The 4 p.m. contest pits No. 7 Butler County Community College (20-4) of Pennsylvania against No. 10 Rochester Community and Technical College (20-7) of Minnesota, the host of the 2019 and 2020 tournaments. The Northampton/Dutchess winner advances to play Northern (31-1) Essex Thursday while the Butler County/Rochester winner gets North Lake (25-6).
North Lake was No. 1 in the preseason rankings and is currently No. 2 behind Sandhills which has held the poll's top spot for six weeks after a two-week stint early in the year. Brookdale was No. 1 for one week, Genesee was the top team in the first week of the regular season when an 0-3 start dropped North Lake to No. 8.
How Do the Locals Look?
Fulton-Montgomery enters the national tournament as the Region III champion, having beaten Mohawk Valley 89-82 in the title game on the road Feb. 26.
The Raiders had entered that tournament off a loss to finish the regular season and seeded third behind No. 1 Mohawk Valley and No. 2 Genesee. Fulton-Montgomery beat Genesee 105-98 in its semifinal, topping 100 points for the fourth time this season to set up the championship game.
More:Nationally ranked Mohawk Valley men beat Herkimer for 10th straight basketball win
Mohawk Valley defeated Tompkins Cortland and Hudson Valley community colleges in its first two playoff games and carried a 20-game win streak into the final. The Hawks had not lost since a Nov. 29, 2022, defeat on the court they will be playing on this week. Herkimer beat Mohawk Valley 76-62 in the teams' first meeting; Mohawk Valley won the rematch 79-53 in Utica in January.
Herkimer also won its first game against Fulton-Montgomery in Mohawk in November. The Raiders won 76-70 in Herkimer in January.
Mohawk Valley swept two decisions against Fulton-Montgomery during the regular season, winning 80-76 on the road in November and 101-85 at home in February.
The Hawks were Region III's highest-scoring team this winter, averaging 88.4 points and topping 100 nine times while allowing the second fewest, 66.2 on an average night. Futon-Montgomery was the only higher-scoring team at 89.5 but allowed an average of 79.1.
Mohawk Valley features Region III Player of the Year Jordan Drain who averages 17.6 points and 8.4 rebounds while shooting 42.2 percent on three-pointers. Travis Gray was a first-team regional all-star, averaging 17.8 points in 17 games, and second-teamer Ike Sheppard averages 15.8 points and 9.6 rebounds while shooting 60.7 percent from the field.
Jamir Smith avarages 11.1 points for the Hawks but missed the last three games of the regular season and the playoffs. Daniel Barrera averages 9.9, Asa Beyah 8.6 and Lateef Johnson 8.1. Gray has picked up his scoring in Smith's absence, averaging 24.4 points over the last five games and 22.2 over the last nine; he and Drain were regional tournament all-stars.
De'Vante Mateo scored 61 points in three games and was named the regional tournament's most valuable player with Nahjhime Kirton joining him on the tournament all-star team. Kirton and Mateo were third-team regional all-stars and Kennyh Hardeman was picked for the second.
Hardeman (18.3 ppg, 11.3 rpg) and Kirton (19.8 ppg, 10.2 rpg) average double-doubles for the Raiders and Mateo chips in at 16.3 points per game on a team with five double-digit scores; Jelani Moreno averages 13.0 points and Jevonny Brown averages 11.0.
While Mohawk Valley enters play Wednesday with wins in 20 of its last 21 games, Fulton-Montgomery lost three times in February after a 10-0 start to the new year.
Players to Watch
In addition to the Region III standouts, here are a few other key players.
Bryan Quller (14.9 ppg) and Joey McMullin (14.5 ppg) lead five double digit scorers for Sandhills which averages 102.2 points per game and allows 76.9.
North Lake averages 84.2 points and allows the nation's fewest (63.3). Darion Jones is the leading scorer at 14.2 points per game and scored 13 in last year's championship game.
Brookdale scores 87.9 points per game and has Kavin Mateo and Nick Williams averaging 16.9 and 16.2, respectively.
Freshman Luis Reynoso leads Northern Essex in scoring at 19.2 points per game. The team scores 87.9.
Michael Marable (16.9 ppg) is the high scorer for Northampton which averages 83.5 as a team.
Butler County scores 85.4 points in its average game and has Derrick Anderson (22.2 ppg), Kevaughn Price (21.7 ppg), Jason Baker (16.3) and Todd Simons (15.8) leading the way.
Jasir Tremble (16.4 ppg) is the high scorer for Prince George's which averages 85.9 points.
Rochester scores an average of 78.1 points per game and has Kameron Givens scoring 20.5.
DuPage averages 78.5 with Drew Gaston (18.1 ppg) leading the way.
The Dutchess average of 78.5 points includes 15.8 from Jacob Barnett and 15.7 from Jeremiah Williams.
Women Play In Minnesota
Play also begins Wednesday in Rochester, Minnesota, for the NJCAA's Division III women. Fulton-Montgomery and Onondaga are seeded second and 11th, respectively, as the Region III representatives in the 12-team tournament.
Ohio's Owens Community College is the No. 1 seed. Owens was also the top seed last year when Prince George's beat Minnesota's Northland Community and Technical College 57-48 in the championship game.
Prince George's is seeded eighth again this year.
This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Herkimer College hosting NJCAA basketball tournament for first time
