Atavian Butler received a pass in the corner and unfurled a three-point attempt. Had the shot gone down, the North Central Missouri College men’s basketball team would have had its first lead of the ball game since the 18:26 mark of the second half.
Instead, with a minute and a half left in the Pirates’ opening-round game in the NJCAA Division II National Tournament, the shot bounced off the iron into the waiting hands of an Iowa Lakes defender.
It wasn’t the Pirates’ last shot, but it was their best shot. And, when it didn’t go down, the writing was on the wall.
North Central fell 79-72 in the first-round match-up with sixth-seeded Iowa Lakes. Mounting turnovers and missed free throws combined with a tough shooting day from downtown proved to be too much for the 11th-seeded Pirates to overcome.
“I’m super proud of our guys and how they kept pushing and kept believing,” North Central coach Jeremy Esry said. “They played hard the entire game and created opportunities for us to be in a position to win the game late.”
North Central turned the ball over 14 times in the loss, though. They shot 63.6 percent from the free-throw line, hitting 14-of-22 and were a dismal 2-for-14 on three-point attempts. Having trouble in one or two of those areas might have allowed the Pirates to pull off the victory. Mis-firing in all three areas, however, was simply too much to overcome — though they nearly did.
After battling back and forth in the opening half, North Central trailed just 37-36 at the break. But Kolten Griffin put in a bucket and drew a foul in the process. His ensuing free throw put North Central in front 42-41. What felt like a momentum-grabbing turning point was not, however. Iowa Lakes reeled off eight-straight points to jump start what would be a 16-3 run and with 14 minutes left in the game NCMC was chasing, down 57-45.
That’s when Damien Loyd gave North Central a spark, however. He connected on a long three and then fed the ball to Mack Anderson for an easy bucket and an assist. That started the Pirates’ own 10-3 run to bring them back into the ballgame. With 7:30 left, the Iowa Lakes lead was six. With four minutes to go it was four and with two it was two.
Butler’s missed triple came with NCMC down two. After the teams traded buckets following that play, Iowa Lakes connected on a three-pointer and then added a pair of free throws after a Pirates turnover to give the game its final margin of seven points.
“We struggled with turnovers early and that put us in a hole,” Esry said. “It would have been interesting to see how we would have fared if we limited our turnovers and hit our free throws. I thought we also struggled with rebounding and giving up second-chance opportunities.”
In a physical first half the Pirates trailed 7-2 out of the gate, but rallied to lead at 27-26 at the 6:38 mark of the opening frame. From there the two squads traded the lead back and forth before going into the locker room with the Pirates trailing by a single tally.
Butler led North Central with 18 points and four assists and Anderson followed with 14 points. Jeramy Shaw reached double figures as well with 10 points, also handing out five assists and grabbing two steals. Griffin finished with eight points for the Pirates and Loyd finished with seven.
North Central got a match-up with third-seeded South Suburban, one the Pirates hoped they would get in the national quarterfinals, in the seventh-place bracket on Thursday. South Suburban was knocked off by 14th-seeded Henry Ford on Wednesday, sending the Bulldogs into the seventh-place bracket alongside North Central. The two teams tipped off on Thursday at 3 p.m. The winner advanced to the seventh-place semifinal while the loser was eliminated from the tournament.