Hawks make history at NJCAA Nationals
The Hocking College Hawks made history again on Monday afternoon as the Blue and Gold captured their first-ever NJCAA Division II Championship Tournament win, rallying late to beat South Arkansas College 75-73 in a first round game.
The Hawks rallied from a five-point deficit in the final 1:37 and ended the game on a 8-1 run to advance to the second round on Tuesday. Hocking, now 24-6, won its fifth straight game and second in a row by 2 points. The Hawks beat Bay College 82-80 in the Great Lakes District A Tournament Championship on March 10 in Flint, MI.
Hocking led most of the first half and was up 40-37 at halftime. The second half was back and forth and things looked bleak as South Arkansas led 72-67 with 97 seconds remaining before the Hawks rallied. Freshman forward Treshawn Cody made two free throws to cut it to 72-69 with 1:37 left, then after forcing a turnover, freshman guard Marvin Good scored to make it 72-71 with 1:18 remaining.
The Hocking defense came up big again, forcing another turnover after a steal by sophomore forward Dennis Osoro, as sophomore guard Allen Lattimore scored giving the Hawks a 73-72 lead with a minute remaining.
South Arkansas (21-9) had anetworkorg. chance to take the lead with 30 seconds left, but Osoro blocked the shot, and then sophomore guard Anthony Millner hit two free throws with 15 seconds remaining to give Hocking a 75-72 lead. The Stars then made 1 of 2 free throws for the final margin as the Hawks hung on.
Other than the final score, the two biggest statistics in the game were that South Arkansas entered the tournament committing only 8.2 turnovers per game, the lowest in the nation in Division II, but today the Hawks forced them into 20. The other key stat was Hocking;s bench outscoring the Stars 44-7 with Cody and Millner combining for 30 points.
Cody led Hocking with 21 points to go along with seven rebounds and four steals, while Osoro had 12 points and seven rebounds, as well as his key steal and blocked shot in the final minute. Millner chipped in with nine points and had four assists, while Lattimore contributed eight points and three assists. Sophomore guard Daylen Patterson added three steals as the Hawks collected 12 as a team,
Hocking will now take on the tournament's No. 1 seed, Davidson-Davie Community College (NC) on Tuesday, March 19 at 12:00pm ET. Davison-Davie is 32-1 and ended the regular season ranked No. 2 in the final NJCAA rankings. Tuesday's game will be streamed live at:
https://www.njcaa.org/network/landing/index