Lions Bow Out at NJCAA DIII Tournament

HERKIMER, N.Y. – Dallas College Mountain View men's basketball team's season came to an end Thursday morning, following a 107-99 loss to Northern Essex Community College in the consolation round of the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Tournament at Herkimer College.

It was the first trip to the national tournament for Mountain View (15-20) since the Lions won it all in 2011.

Augustine Chibuko finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and a block, and Ashton Price 24 points, four assists and a block for the Lions, who shot 50 percent from the field. Xavier Rivera scored 25 points, and grabbed nine rebounds off the bench, and Alejandro Delgado had 19 points and eight boards for Northern Essex, which improved to 29-4. The Knights shot 54 percent.

Northern Essex outrebounded Mountain View 48-32. The Knights were credited with 25 assists to the Lions' 14.

Mountain View led 55-42 at halftime, but was outscored by 21 in the second half.

Noel Duplechain's layup less than six minutes into the game gave the Lions an 11-point lead. Chibuko scored with 9:25 to play in the first half to extend the cushion to 31-19 before the Knights scored the next seven points to pull within five. Jordan Moreno's back-to-back 3s at the 6:32 and 6:14 marks stretched Mountain View's lead back to 11. Delgado hit a jumper with 1:49 left on the clock to pull the Knights within six before Price answered the next trip down the floor.

Adrian Banks' layup with 43 seconds remaining in the half bumped the Lions on top by 13, and that's the cushion Mountain View took into the locker room.

The Lions shot 51 percent in the first half, knocking down 20 of 39 field goals and nine of 10 free throws, while canning six of 14 triples for 43 percent. Northern Essex was 17 of 37 (46 percent) from the floor, while struggling from the perimeter in a 2-for-11 shooting performance.

Mountain View built its largest lead at 18 just 1:03 into the second half when Chibuko converted a three-point play, but the Knights used 9-2 run over the next 1:08 to pull within 11 on Christian Sanders' transition dunk. Price buried a 3 at the 16:41 mark to keep the Lions ahead 12, but Ryan Pacy's 3 exactly 58 seconds later helped Northern Essex cut it to eight. Price scored at the 13:52 mark to make it a 12-point lead again for the Lions before Rivera's layup 49 seconds later cut it to 75-68.

Chibuko threw down a dunk with 11:22 remaining to give the Lions a 10-point lead. The Knights went on an 8-0 run, capped off by Alex Johnson's transition field goal at the 9:44 mark to pull within 80-78. Jeremiah Talib hit a 3 to pad the Lions back to a five-point advantage. But Northern Essex capped an 11-0 surge when Johnson split a pair from the free throw stripe with 6:14 to go to give the Knights a six-point lead.

Talib's jumper at the 5:48 mark pulled the Lions within one, but Pacy's layup 3:01 later expanded the Knights' lead back to eight. Louis Conner's 3 with 1:28 to go cut the deficit to five for the Lions, but Delgado answered with a layup on the other end, and Rivera offset Moreno's jump shot 18 seconds later with a three-point play as the Knights pulled away down the stretch.

Banks scored 14 points. Duplechain finished with 12 points, four rebounds and two steals. Talib had 10 points and three steals. Conner ended his Lions career with eight points, six assists and three steals. Moreno had eight points.

Johnson had 15 points, Sanders 12 points and five rebounds, and Pacy 11 points for the Knights.

It is Mountain View's eighth 15-win season, dating back to 2016-17, with only the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign interrupting that streak.