STATESMEN GEARING UP FOR No. 2 PHOENIX COLLEGE

DANVILLE, ILL. – The Richard Bland College men's basketball team will take on the reigning 2014 National Junior College Athletic Association Champions and No. 2 seed Phoenix College (Phoenix, AZ) on Friday, March 20 in the Final Four of the 2015 NJCAA Tournament, with a tipoff time of 7 p.m. EST.

The contest will provide live video on rbcathletics.com and fans can follow live tweets of the game on Twitter @GoRBCStatesmen.

The Statesmen (30-4) enter the contest after defeating the Lakers of Garrett College in a 96-77 decision to advance to the Final Four. Avery Ugba led offensively with 18 points while collecting 11 rebounds. Reginald Moses (Henrico, VA), LeQuan Thomas (Virginia Beach, VA) and Tavon Mealy (Richmond, VA) added 15 points each.

Mealy is the team's leading scorer, averaging 17.4 points per game, while Ugba and Moses both nod 13.5 ppg, respectively. Defensively, Ugba leads the team in rebounds, averaging 10.3 rebounds per contest, while Mealy and Melvin Gregory follow with 8.3 and 6.2, respectively.

Coming into the contest, the Bears (29-5) – champions of the Region 1 conference reached the final four after defeating Lakeland Community College, 81-65 on Wednesday afternoon.

Brandon Brown is the team's top scorer, averaging 24.7 points per game, while Steve Green is averaging 10.8 per contest – though the Bears have three players averaging at least seven points a contest. Deion Hooks and Noah King is the team's top rebounders, averaging 4.9 and 4.4 boards a night, respectively.

RBC holds a 6-0 record on neutral courts so far this season, including an 72-69 win over Caldwell back on Nov. 11, as part of the Region 10 Blast-Off Tournament, a victory over Snead State (80-54) and Wallace State (77-70), as part of the Comfort Suites New Year's Tip-Off, Tuesday's 87-76 first-round win over MCC-Penn Valley and Wednesday's 96-77 elite eight win over Garrett College.

Last season, the Statesmen went 3-1 on neutral courts last season, and during head coach Chuck Moore's tenure, the Statesmen are 9-1 overall.

The matchup will be the first meeting between the two teams in program history.

For more information on RBC men's basketball, please visit rbcathletics.com.

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