Foul trouble quickly limited Chattanooga State in the first game it ever played in the NJCAA Division I men’s basketball national tournament, but the Tigers fought third-ranked Midland College to the end before falling 75-71 Tuesday in Hutchinson, Kan.
Latraius Mosley scored 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and added 10 rebounds for Chattanooga State (24-6) before being injured with 1:18 to go and the Tigers down a point, while Alex Dean had 19 points and seven rebounds and Siddeeq Cooper scored 10 points.
Guy Landry scored 18 points to lead the 31-3 Texas team, which moves on to a 6 p.m. CDT game today against Wabash Valley (Ill.) in the Hutchinson, Kan.
The Tigers play a consolation-bracket game at 3 against Waycross (Ga.), which lost 75-57 to Wabash Valley. But they won’t they have their head coach, Jay Price. He’s also the women’s head coach, and the Lady Tigers begin play at 2 CDT about an hour away in the women’s national tournament at Salina, Kan. Assistant coach Travis Glover will direct the men with help from volunteer assistant Lawanza Crutcher.
The 25th-ranked Lady Tigers (22-6) take on ninth-ranked State Fair Community College (28-4) of Missouri.
“The ladies now get their chance at the show. Let’s see how they do,” Price said Tuesday night.
In the men’s game Tuesday, Chattanooga State All-American candidate Philip Jurick was called for two fouls in the first five minutes. The 6-foot-11 Region VII player of the year and NJCAA leader in blocked shots with 9.5 per game played only 11 minutes in all and had three blocks and five rebounds – he’s second in the country in that category – but failed to score.
Dean, the Tigers’ leading scorer and No. 2 rebounder, also was whistled for two fouls early, as was Michael Robertson, but Chattanooga State surged from a 22-15 deficit into a 32-32 tie and trailed 35-34 at halftime.
“We were able to weather that storm,” Price said. “Mosley mostly carried us, but then we got hurt in the last two minutes, that killed us.
“Of course I’m not happy that we didn’t win, but I’m pleased with the way the kids fought. A lot of things didn’t go our way early, but we were in a position that down the stretch the game could’ve gone either way. They hit a couple of shots and a couple of other calls didn’t go our way.”