M-Basketball: #1 Golden Eagles can't hang on to double-digit second half lead, lose at #1 Triton
The best team in NJCAA D3 met the best team in NJCAA D2 on Saturday evening. Ironically, both of these teams are in the same conference, the North Central Community College Conference (N4C). The crowd in River Grove, IL saw a thriller. Triton College jumped out to a 14-4 lead to start the game before Rock Valley College would go on a 18-2 run to take control of the half. RVC would enter the intermission with a 34-31 halftime lead. The second half would see the Golden Eagles extend their lead to ten points with under 10 minutes to play before Triton would flex their muscle and bury 5 of their 8 threes in the final 8 minutes of action to ultimately win 81-74.
(
Craig Doty,
Dalton Payton,
Kooper Glick - RVC Athletics)
Dalton Payton led the way for Rock Valley College (25-3, 9-3 N4C) with 19 points and 6 steals.
Kooper Glick scored 18 points while
LT Davis chipped in with 15 points.
Elijah Williams finished with 9 points and tied for a game-high 8 rebounds. Triton College (26-2, 12-0 N4C) was led by Josh Doss scored a game-high 29 points.
"We had control of the game and let it slip away," head coach
Craig Doty stated. "People talk about them being Division 2 and them having 10 scholarships while we are a non-scholarship Division 3 program, but that doesn't matter to us. I love our guys, our talent, and the tradition we have established. Triton took advantage of every mistake we made down the stretch and they were tougher than us tonight. They protected their home court."
The Golden Eagles are 47-17 vs. scholarship NJCAA D1 and D2 opponents since the
Craig Doty-era began in 2012. Seven of those losses are to Triton. The NJCAA D2 level has around 125 programs throughout the country while the NJCAA D3 level has around 115 programs in the United States. The last time the #1 teams in the country for each level met up was last year when Triton came to Rock Valley on Valentines Day. In that contest, Rock Valley defeated Triton by a score of 75-72 behind a trio of Golden Eagles scoring 15 points each (
Ben Grygiel,
Frank Cimino,
Dalton Payton).
Rock Valley is back in action on Wednesday at home vs. College of DuPage. The women are scheduled to tip-off at 5:30 PM with the men to follow at 7:30 PM on the campus of Rock Valley College.
