M-Basketball: #4 RVC Falls Short in Region IV Championship
Box Score 1 In what proved to be the season finale for the Golden Eagles, #4 RVC Men's Basketball fell just short to Joliet Junior College 74-70 in the Region IV Tournament Championship game in Madison, WI. Rock Valley finishes its season with a 27-6 record overall.
In Saturday night's Region IV Tournament Semifinal, RVC had no issues running past the host school, Madison College 76-59. The Golden Eagles relied heavily upon their half court defense in the first half to take a 41-21 lead into the break. Madison was able to score more efficiently in the second half, but they were never able to cut the large margin to single digits.
DeMari Davis led the way with a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds.
DeAnte Barnes added a double-double of his own with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Elijah Pappas (15),
Malique Ross (13), and
Darius Branch (12) all recorded double figure scoring.
In Sunday's championship game, the Golden Eagles got down 22-5 early into the first half. RVC stormed back, cutting the Joliet lead to 3 points with just over 1 minute remaining in the first half. 2 costly turnovers fueled a quick 4-0 for the Wolves as they carried a 36-29 lead into halftime. The Golden Eagles managed to tie Joliet on 2 separate occasions in the second half, but failed to string together enough defensive stops in the last 4 minutes to get over the hump. Branch led the way with 19 points. He and Davis were both named to the Region IV All-Tournament Team.Â
"It is tough," said Head Men's Basketball CoachÂ
Evan Lavery. "We just did not earn the right to win the game. We obviously were not prepared for it (the loss), but it is a tough part of life that good things come to an end before you are ready for them to be over. Our sophomores will definitely be missed."
