Winona, MN-
Two teams from the Minnesota College Athletic Conference will meet today in pursuit of an automatic bid the 2019-20 NJCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championships, to be held in Rochester, Minnesota on March 11-14.
Fans, families and followers of MCAC basketball will see a 5pm tip-off between St. Cloud Technical & Community College - currently No. 9 in the NJCAA Top 15 poll - and Rochester Community & Technical College, sitting at No. 5 nationally. Anoka-Ramsey Community College in Coon Rapids, Minnesota is the site for this afternoon's championship contest.
Today's winning side will advance to join eight other automatic qualifiers and four at-large selections for the 2019-20 championship event, which features the first year of the 12-team format. Beginning this evening, several teams from across the country will turn their attention to the NJCAA Division III Men's Basketball At-Large possibilities; the runner-up from today's 2019-20 NJCAA North Plains District Championship will be one of several nationally-ranked teams in the NJCAA Division III Top 15 hoping for an at-large call later this week.
The Cyclones (25-2) advanced on the strength of a 117 - 106 win over Riverland Community College (15-13) on Saturday afternoon. SCTCC had a 53-49 halftime lead and were paced by Paul Coleman with 33 points on the day, including 15-of-17 shooting from the foul line. Torez Kinchen scored 24 for Southern Division Coach-of-the-Year Andy Cone, while London Williams had 14 points, four steals and four rebounds.
The #5 Yellowjackets (24-5) earned their championship place with a hard-fought 83-80 victory over #11 Central Lakes College (24-5). Sophomore Kong Kong led the way for RCTC with 22 points and 12 boards; teammates Jerome Cunningham added 17 points and Ray Adams brought a balanced effort to the semi-final with 13 points, three assists and three steals. In a game decided by three points, Kong was 6-for-6 from the charity stripe.
2019-20 NJCAA North Plains District Men's Basketball Championship
Championship Game, 5pm: #9 St. Cloud Technical & Community College vs. #5 Rochester Community & Technical College
Live-Stat Link: https://www.mcacsports.org/sports/mbkb/2019-20/boxscores/20200301_f1u0.xml
BlueFrame Live Stream Link: https://arccgoldenrams.com/multimedia/Blueframe_Live_Stream
Host College Information: https://www.arccgoldenrams.com/landing/index
NJCAA Division III Men's Basketball Page: https://www.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/index
For more on MCAC Men's Basketball, please go to: https://www.mcacsports.org/sports/mbkb/index
NJCAA Basketball, including National Top15 Poll and Player-of-the-Week releases can be found at: https://www.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/index
The Minnesota College Athletic Conference is the organizational body for NJCAA-affiliated two-year technical and community college athletic programs in the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system, as well as select member colleges in North Dakota and Wisconsin. The mission of the Minnesota College Athletic Conference is to advance intercollegiate athletics by providing an engaging and supportive environment for success of our student athletes and competition among member institutions. The MCAC is committed to the guiding principles of encouraging the development and success of student athletes, promoting the integrity, honesty and loyalty to member schools as well as upholding the sustainability of conference athletic programs.
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