North Lake Falls to Rochester in NJCAA DIII Quarterfinals

HERKIMER, N.Y. – Dallas College North Lake men's basketball team lost to Rochester Community & Technical College, 73-63, Thursday in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III quarterfinals.

The No. 2-ranked Blazers (25-7) will play College of DuPage (21-14) in Friday's 1 p.m. CT 5th place semifinal round. RCTC (22-7) advances to the semifinals.

The loss snapped a 21-game win streak for the Blazers, ending their bid to repeat as national champions. It was a game that featured five ties and five lead changes.

North Lake trailed by 10 with 7:54 to play in the first half. But the Blazers went on an 18-5 run, which began with DeKyre Fuller's basket and culminated with Ring Deng's layup at the 1:35 mark to give North Lake a 27-24 lead. Darion Jones scored to beat the halftime buzzer, sending the Blazers into the break up two.

Kameron Givens scored five of RCTC's first seven points in the second half as the Yellowjackets crept ahead by three. North Lake's Brandon Lawrence scored less than five minutes into the half to make it a one-point game before Peyton Dunham and Givens both scored to put RCTC back up five.

The Blazers cut it to 43-41 on Fuller's lay-in at the 13:08 mark. The 13^th-ranked Yellowjackets extended the lead to seven on two separate occasions before Jesse Peart's three-pointer pulled North Lake within two with 8:56 remaining. Quincy Burland's basket capped a 6-0 RCTC run to stretch the lead to eight. Jones' jumper with 4:27 to go cut the gap to 60-56. The Yellowjackets bumped the lead back to eight on a layup by Jacob Lotz, and the Blazers could not recover.

North Lake was outscored, 43-31, in the second half.

Deng finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Jakob Zenon scored 13 points, and Peart eight. Jones had seven points, five rebounds, two steals and a block. Lawrence and Fuller each had seven points.

Givens had 27 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals. Burland finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. Dunham had 11 points and 10 boards.

North Lake shot 34.4 percent, going 22 of 64. Rochester shot 49 percent, going 24 of 49. The Blazers outscored the Yellowjackets, 30-22, in the paint. North Lake's bench outscored RCTC, 27-17.