Greyhounds Fall in First Round of National Tournament

The 14th-seeded Greyhounds fell 83-74 to the 3rd-seeded Henry Ford College Hawks Tuesday in the first round of the NJCAA National Tournament in Danville, Illinois.

The Greyhounds started the game by scoring the first 8 points until Caleb Bates hit a fallaway from 10' to break the run at the 16:22 mark. The Hawks then put together a 13-4 run to take their first lead, 15-12, on a Mike Robinson three-pointer with 12:01 remaining in the first half. Henry Ford College would go on to hit 8-of-16 three-pointers and 6-of-6 free throws in the first half to take a 44-39 lead into halftime despite the Greyhounds shooting 54.8% from the field. But it was ASU Mid-South's 10 turnovers, the majority unforced, that hurt the most as the Hawks turned it over just 3 times.

In the second half, the Hawks hit their first three-pointer and then continued to hit an array of shots from the corners as they went on a 14-4 run until Braxtyn McCuien stopped the bleeding with a turnaround jumper in the paint with 14:36 left and the Greyhounds trailing 58-45. Then it was ASU Mid-South who put together a 9-2 run to narrow the lead to 60-54 on a McCuien three-pointer with 12:35 left to play. But the Hawks put together another run that put them ahead 78-62 with over 6 minutes remaining, and the Greyhounds could only get as close as 8 points the rest of the way.

The Greyhounds shot 47.7% from the field to Henry Ford College's 50.0%, but the Hawks went 12-of-30 (40.0%) from the three-point line to ASU Mid-South's 7-of-21 (33.3%). The Greyhounds won the battle of the boards 37-32 but hurt themselves with 17 turnovers to the Hawks' 8.

Braxtyn McCuien led Greyhounds with 17 points and finished with 6 rebounds and 4 assists, and Christian Thompson scored 16 points to go with 6 boards as well. Jesse Washington and O.J. Marrs scored 12 points each, and Washington secured a team-high 8 rebounds. The Hawks were led by D'Juan Seals' 26 points with Tyler Mack scoring 20.

The Greyhounds (23-10) drop to the consolation bracket and play Thursday at 3:00pm while Henry Ford College (26-4) advances to the quarterfinals Thursday at 6:00pm.