No. 8 Seeded Flyers Face No. 9 John Wood (IL) in First Round of National Tournament
The Sandhills Community College basketball team's first round opponent at next week's NJCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship will be John Wood Community College of Quincy, IL.
Coaches and players gathered in Boyd Library on campus during the noon hour on Monday for a live stream of the NJCAA Selection Show. The Flyers (19-4), representing Region 10, are seeded No. 8 in the field of 16 teams. The Blazers (16-6), from Region 24, are the No. 9 seed.
The two teams are scheduled to tip off at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20 at the Mary Miller Center on the campus of Danville Area Community College in Danville, IL. The Flyers were ranked seventh, and the Blazers ninth, in the final Division II national poll of the season.
"You think of this as once in a lifetime stuff," Flyers' Coach Mike Apple said, following the broadcast, "but we tend to get jaded when it happens yearly. This is the third time in a row we've had this opportunity.
"I feel really blessed and fortunate to get all of this done and I think our guys are in the same mode."
This will be the third national tournament for guard Savion Staton who made the trip to Rochester, MN in 2019 as a red-shirt freshman when the Flyers finished in fifth place.
Staton, Corry Addison, Derreco Miller and Nathan Yow were members of last year's Division III national championship team, and Keegan Brayboy attended the event, also held in Minnesota, as a red-shirt freshman.
The No. 1 seed for this year's tournament went to Davidson-Davie CC (20-2). The Storm and the Flyers are on the same side of the bracket so a national championship game between the Region 10 rivals is not possible.
A first round win by the Flyers would move them into a quarterfinal contest against the winner of the Storm's game against No. 16 seeded Oakland CC, MI (11-6).
The five-day tournament concludes with the championship game at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 24, preceded by the third, fifth and seventh place consolation bracket finals.
"The first thing we have to do now is get ready for John Wood," Apple said. "It's a big week of practice and for making sure all the logistics line up to get to Illinois and to be ready to play."
Tournament games will be streamed live on the NJCAA Network. John Wood CC brings a five-game winning streak into its game against the Flyers. The Blazers are led by 6-foot-2 sophomore Jarvis Jennings who averages 19.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.
The Flyers come into the tournament as the second highest scoring team in the field at 99.5 per game. The No. 5 seed, Ancilla College, IN, is first at 100.9.
C. Bergmann