M-Basketball: Branch's Buzzer Beater Pushes RVC Past Black Hawk
Box Score It came down to the last possession, but Rock Valley College Men's Basketball (2-0) edged out NJCAA DII Black Hawk College (2-2) 78-76 in The Nest on Tuesday evening. Sophomore Darius Branch (Chicago, IL) hit a 16-foot pull-up jump shot as the final buzzer sounded to push the Golden Eagles over the top.
"We did an outstanding job of making things more interesting than we needed to," said Head Men's Basketball Coach
Evan Lavery. "In my five years on staff at Rock Valley College, we have never lost to Black Hawk, but we have never played them well. We played a lackadaisical first half. We responded well after the break, but played in spurts way too much. We need to work diligently to turn out spurts into habits. The same spurt that got us up 11 points then resulted in the game being tied with 1 possession remaining. The exciting part is, though, is that it is November. We have plenty of opportunities moving forward to correct our mistakes, and improve our program."
The Golden Eagles claimed their largest lead of the game at 64-53 with just over 5 minutes remaining. Behind an array of drives by Connor Fuller, and a trio of triples from Larry Dixon, Black Hawk scraped their way into tying the game at 76 to set the table for Branch's late game heroics.
Branch led the way with 23 points for RVC. Sophomores
Malique Ross and
Elijah Pappas added 15 points and 12 points, respectively.
UP NEXT
RVC Men's Basketball travels to NJCAA DII powerhouse South Suburban College on Saturday, November 11th. Tip off is set for 3 PM in South Holland, IL.
