(NDG Wire) It was the freshman’s first trip out of Texas and he didn’t know what to expect but he knew the team had to win because this underdog team had something to prove.
March Madness is heating up and this young basketball team turned up the heat in New York state March 12 to prove to a hostile crowd that they had what it took to rise up through the ranks to beat conference top ranked Rochester CTC Yellowjackets, 72-64, in Lock Shedrake, N.Y., to become 2011 NJCAA Division III men’s basketball champions.
To honor the team’s victory, a congratulatory pep rally will be held on March 23 at 2 p.m. inside of the Mountain View College Gym, 4849 West Illinois Ave. in Dallas. Officials from the city of Dallas will present the team special recognition certificate.
National most valuable player Marcus Price, 19, said the victory was memorable in many ways.
“This was my first championship win and my very first airplane ride. It was exciting but our team remained focus.”
Price, Mountain View’s top scorer, dropped 18 points on the Yellowjackets, including going 2 for 3 from the free-throw line. Eliwasa Baker joined in with 11 points, and added eight rebounds, while Ashley Crayton also contributed 11 points and five rebounds. Baker and Crayton went 3 for 6 and 5 for 8 from the line, respectively. Bryan Rollins was an asset off the Mountain View bench, scoring 8 and grabbing three boards. William “Gary” Talton had 11 assists in the title game.
Sources say Mountain View College is building a name for itself and creating an athletic program that places a premium on academic achievement.
“We are building a winning athletic program but more importantly we are building an all academic team collectively averaging a 3.00 or higher GPA,” says Coach LeRoi Phillips.
The National Junior College Athletic Association national championship has a 40-year history. The NJCAA Men’s Division III Basketball Championships consists of eight teams playing over a three-day period in March to determine a national champion. The tournament field is made up of teams that win either region or district championships that are required to earn entry into the tournament. Mountain View College celebrated its 40-year anniversary in 2010 and celebrated its very first national basketball championship this season.
Eighty-nine percent of the team consisted of freshman spawning from Fort Worth, Atlanta and New Orleans who accepted the challenges and remained as, one player put it, humble and focused on the win and become a force to be reckoned with in New York state. Talton, whose favorite coach happens to be Phil Jackson shared, “When the season started all of the team members were new. We had never met one another before but now we are all brothers – a family of winners.”
