Niagara, NY-Raritan Valley Men's Basketball punched their ticket to the NJCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship for the first time in program history on Saturday. In a rematch of last season's District Playoff game against perennial Region 3 powerhouse, Monroe Community College, the Lions delivered a victory in the playoff round where they had been stymied in the two previous seasons.
Monroe raced out to a commanding lead over the Lions. The outcome looked bleak for the Lions before they turned the tide midway through the first half. The turnaround led to a convincing ten point victory where the Lions controlled the entire second half of the contest. Raritan Valley fell behind by ten points, ten minutes into the game. They later saw their deficit swell to 14 points, trailing 31-17 thanks in large part to the play in the paint of Monroe's Jaheem Tyson and some sloppy Raritan ball handling. FR Miles Whye put the Lions on his shoulders to singlehandedly, lead the team back. Whye hit a corner three pointer, followed by 2 free throws, another three pointer, and two additional free throws on consecutive trips down the court. Whye's 10 straight, unanswered points brought Raritan back and reinvigorated the team. The momentum shift was palpable as Raritan's defensive effort and transition offense kept the pressure on Monroe. FR Najee Graham made a fast break lay up to pull the Lions within two points. After Monroe made 1 out of 2 from the free throw line, SO Waseem Ajeigbe, threw down a slam dunk off of a nifty pass from FR Raydelh Boutin to cut the lead to one. Moments later Boutin found Graham on an outlet pass for another fast break layup, this time Graham was fouled and completed the three point play giving the Lions a 35-33 lead that they would not relinquish.
Raritan would keep the momentum that took them into the locker room with a 37-33 lead throughout the second half. The Lions played stiffling defense limiting Monroe to only 36% shooting from the field and 20% from beyond the arc. Region XIX Player of the Year Najee Graham finished with a game high 24 points on 7/13 shooting and picked up 10 points from the free throw line.
The Lions will now travel to Danville, IL for the national tournament was the #19 seed in the 20 team tournament. Raritan will play Kansas City-Kansas Community College at the Mary Miller Center, at 1:00 Central Time on Monday March 17th, with the winner moving on to face #3 seed Kirkwood Community College at 3:00 PM on Tuesday.