Billy Gillispie and his Ranger College team upset No. 1 overall seed Northwest Florida State 66-63 on Thursday to move into the semifinals of the NJCAA (JUCO) National Tournament.
Here’s a look at the semifinal teams and a recap of Ranger’s win:
Excerpt of article from HutchNews.com:
″(Northwest Florida State) had size all over the court. I think their smallest guys is bigger than our tallest guy, but our guys have a lot of heart and their not afraid of anything — just like Brayan’s shot and the plays that Jaren (English) and everyone else on the team made,” Gillispie said. “You could take anybody on our team and they would basically say the same thing. These guys sacrifice (for each other) and they don’t look at a stats sheet to determine how they play. They look at one stat, and that’s wins and losses.”
Duarte led five Raiders who scored between 13 and nine points. The others included Hamlet (11), Diggs (11), Tyrie Jackson (11) and Kayne Henry (nine). Despite the balanced scoring, Northwest Florida State was limited to 33 percent shooting from the field.
English had a game-high 24 points on 9 of 16 shooting from the field, but it was his pass to Au that made a huge difference.
“Coach (Gillipie) called for a slash that had been working for us all game,” English said. “Brayan told me about it, earlier, because I had missed him a few times in (Wednesday’s game against Cleveland State) about how he would slide into the corner. He told me that he would always be there. So, I gave it to him.”
It’s a play the Rangers routinely practice.
Au, who was held scoreless in the first half, finished with 10 points.
“I think that my team needed me, and Coach (Gillispie) said, ‘You just have to give 4 percent more.’ ” Au said. “That’s what we did, and we got the win.”
