HUTCHINSON, Kan. – When it opened the NJCAA DI Men's Tournament Tuesday as the No. 1 seed, Logan was 0-4 all-time in the tournament.
When its bench stampeded the floor after time expired Saturday, the Volunteers had the period to end all sentences.
A come-from-behind 73-70 win over No. 7 Northwest Florida State in Hutchinson Sports Arena gave Logan its first national title and a season-ending 31-game winning streak. And it made a prophet out of leading scorer Curt Lewis.
“Defense and free throws,” he said. “That’s what we said it would come down to.”
That’s basically what allowed the Vols (33-2) to overcome a cold shooting day – they were 26 of 78 from the floor, 4 of 20 on 3-pointers – and cut down the nets. Logan also took 19 more shots than the Raiders (29-8), a critical advantage in a one-possession game.
It was the Vols’ final shot that put them over the hump. Center KJ Debrick beat two Northwest Florida State players to a loose ball in the lane and powered home a layup while being hacked. His subsequent free throw made it 71-68 with 40.7 seconds left.
“It’s a hustle play; you’ve got to go all-out for these,” Debrick said. “If that ball goes out of bounds, it’s Northwest Florida ball. I just went for it. You’ve got to go for things.”
After the Raiders’ Marcus Niblack clanked the front end of a one-and-one with 39.8 seconds left, Debrick came up with a loose ball that might have been more important than the one he converted into the lead.
Logan was about to turn the ball over in the corner in frontcourt when the 6-10 Debrick hit the deck and saved it to Lewis. Moments later, tournament Most Valuable Player Quimari Peterson drew a foul and made one of two for a four-point edge with 19.7 seconds remaining.
“When he got on the ground, it hyped me up,” said guard Isaiah Stafford of Debrick. “Nobody on this team is afraid to sacrifice their body for each other.”
Kasean Pryor banked home a pullup with 12.2 seconds on the clock to pull Northwest Florida State within 72-70. Stafford was fouled with 8.2 seconds remaining and made the first, but missed the second, leaving the Raiders with a last shot at overtime.
But the Vols saved their best defense for the last possession of the year. Chad Baker-Mazara, who scored a game-high 21 points but had just one in the last 10-plus minutes, couldn’t shake free. Pryor couldn’t find anyone to pass to and had to force a wild 3 from the right corner.
The shot was DOA as the horn blared. Moments later, Logan players were donning T-shirts and caps to commemorate the historic occasion.
“To know where we’ve been from and how hard we worked to get to this point … this experience actually exceeded my expectations,” Stafford said of winning the championship.
Lewis scored 18 points despite making only 6 of 20 shots. Peterson added 15 points, five assists and no turnovers in 32 minutes. Stafford contributed 10 points and Elijah Jones grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
The Raiders led 34-24 with 4:55 left in the first half but the Vols closed the first half strong. James Dent’s 3-point play brought them within 43-39 at the break.
Logan took a lead before the first TV timeout of the second half. From there, the game became a grinder as fatigue grabbed hold of both teams’ offenses. It was tied at the under-8 and under-4 timeouts.
A few minutes after the Vols climbed a ladder to cut the nets down, Lewis was reminded of his comment after Friday’s 94-89 win over Tallahassee. He said the team would be celebrating between 3 and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
“It’s crazy,” he said, laughing. “It means a lot to the community. Nobody thought we could do it at John A., but the folks in Carterville and Carbondale, they knew we could do it. Nobody else did.