Greyhounds Stay Alive Against Scottsdale

The Greyhounds used tough defense and key shooting to hold off the Scottsdale Community College Fighting Artichokes for a 91-84 victory in the consolation round of the NJCAA National Tournament in Danville, Illinois.

The game began with both teams starting slow as ASU Mid-South led just 6-4 with five minutes gone off the clock. But Braxtyn McCuien started a Greyhound run with a 6' jumper in the paint off of a beautiful feed from O.J. Marrs, and Kyrin Dock's floater capped it at the 12:28 mark as ASU Mid-South's 14-0 run gave them a 20-4 lead. But after leading by as much as 20 points, the Greyhounds saw the grit of the Artichokes as Scottsdale cut the lead to 10 points, 34-24, on a three-pointer by Isaiah Broady with 3:43 to play in the first half. But the Greyhounds closed the half with a 12-2 run to lead 46-26 at the half.

In the second half, the Greyhounds maintained control to go up by as much as 24 points on a deep three-pointer by Jailen Anderson for a 72-48 lead with 10:12 remaining. But after trailing by 21, the Fighting Artichokes would mount a furious comeback that started with a Cameron Faas three-pointer at the 4:35 mark. Scottsdale then went to a full-court press that resulted in either quick shots by the Greyhounds or turnovers as the Artichokes got points from seven of their next eight possessions to cut the lead to 83-74 with 1:32 left to play, and eventually got the lead to 87-81 with 15.2 seconds left. But the Greyhounds finished the game by knocking down 8-of-10 free throws in the final minute of play to secure the victory.

The Greyhounds shot 50.8% from the field, an outstanding 9-of-18 (50.0%) from the three-point line and 20-of-26 (76.9%) from the free throw line while 11th-seeded Scottsdale shot 47.8% from the field, 11-of-29 (37.9%) from the arc and just 9-of-18 (50.0%) from the charity stripe. The Greyhounds won the boards, 40-36, and committed 14 turnovers with 12 coming in the second half and most of those in the final four minutes of the game, while the Artichokes turned it over 10 times for the game.

ASU Mid-South (24-11) was led by Jailen Anderson's 24 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists while Christian Thompson was good for 21 points. Braxtyn McCuien scored 17 points to go with 7 rebounds, Jesse Washington put in 13 points, and Je'marion Westbrook came off the bench to finish with 7 points and 7 boards. Scottsdale was led by Cameron Faas and Isaiah Floyd with 16 points each and ends their season with a 25-9 overall record.

The Greyhounds now have less than 18 hours before playing in the consolation semifinals Friday at 11:00am with the winner moving on to the 7th Place Game on Championship Saturday at 11:00am.