North Central Grabs Early Lead, Answers Every Challenge In Historic Upset Victory
Coach Jeremy Esry would not permit himself to embrace what his team was on the cusp of accomplishing. Not until the clock hit zeros he told himself.
With about 40 seconds left, Esry gave in.
In Overland Park, KS on Tuesday night, the 14th-ranked North Central Missouri College men’s basketball team knocked off the number-one team in the nation – the Johnson County Cavaliers – 91-79. It is the first time in the North Central program’s history that the Pirates have unseated a number-one ranked team.
“I’m one of those guys who is always nervous until the very end,” Esry said. “Until it gets to zero-zero I think that somehow we are going to mess it up. I shouldn’t be that way, though, because I have a lot of confidence in our guys.”
Johnson County scored the first bucket of the contest, but North Central quickly responded by taking a lead. The Pirates pushed their advantage to double figures early on, but Johnson County made a run. The top-ranked Cavaliers slowed the pace and got to the free throw line to trim North Central’s advantage to just four points.
But the Pirates responded, going to the hoop and getting to the free throw line as well. North Central would shoot just 67.6 percent from the charity stripe in the contest, but made up for it with numbers by shooting nearly 40 free throws in the game.
The points at the stripe allowed NCMC to restore its lead and by halftime the Pirate advantage had swelled to 13 points at 50-37.
NCMC’s lead grew to 15 points, forcing Johnson County into a timeout three minutes into the second half. From that point, the Cavaliers mounted another comeback bid. But once again, North Central had the answer.
“We knew they were a good team, so they were going to make some runs on us and we just had to withstand it,” Esry said. “I thought we locked in when we had to and, when we knew we needed to get some stops, we got some stops. That is kind of a testament to our leadership and our sophomores with some experience out there. They understand the ebbs and flows of the game and that we can’t get too high on stuff and we can’t get too low on stuff. If we stay the course we should be okay.”
The Pirates sped up the game and continued getting to the line. Johnson County couldn’t keep pace. NCMC stretched out the game to 15 points again before ultimately handing the top-ranked team in the country a 12-point loss on its own home floor.
Marty Jackson led the way for the Pirates, scoring 23 points to go with eight rebounds. TJ Babikir followed with 19 points and Quinan Rieves had 13 points and seven rebounds. Jeramy Shaw had 12 points and Atavian Butler tallied 11 to round out the double-digit performers for the Pirates.
“Everybody stepped up and played like the player that we recruited,” Esry said. “It starts with Marty Jackson. He brought his energy and his scoring and then Quinan Rieves brought his rebounding. TJ Babikir, who has really been a pleasant surprise for us as a transfer from Lincoln (University), he is just tough and he was diving on the floor for loose balls and sprinting the floor and getting easy baskets. Jeramy Shaw got to the free throw line, Damien Loyd kind of put pressure on (Johnson County) and Atavian Butler did what Atavian Butler does. So everybody did what they needed to do, which is nice to see. When we are clicking on all cylinders we are really fun to watch and really fun to coach.”
The accension of the North Central program has been rapid. Last year the Pirates won their first Region XVI championship, following that with a victory that placed the program in the NJCAA Division II National Tournament for the first time ever. Now NCMC can add knocking off a number one-ranked team to that list – doing so on that team’s own floor, no less.
“It’s a testament to our guys and believing in what we preach every single day to them,” Esry said of the team’s success in the last calendar year. “Believing that hard work is going to pay off. It’s nice to see the benefits of that because we could work our tails off and lose the game and we wouldn’t see the instant rewards. Hopefully, we would see it down the road like we did last year, but it is nice to see our guys put in the work and believe in what we are teaching every single day and then get rewarded.”
With the win, NCMC improved to 12-1 overall on the season.
The Pirates have one more game before departing for Christmas break, coming on Thursday at home in the Ketcham Community Center. North Central plays host to the Central Methodist University junior varsity. That game tips off in Trenton at 7 p.m.
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