RICHARD BLAND WINS NJCAA DIVISION II NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

DANVILLE, ILL.  – Twenty minutes into Saturday's NJCAA Tournament final at Mary Miller Gymnasium, the Richard Bland College men's basketball team saw a 38-21 lead at halftime. But once the second half started, the Statesmen never lost sight of the task at hand and that was to win the NJCAA Championship.

Richard Bland (32-4), the No. 3 seed, won its first ever NJCAA title in program history in just its second year of bringing back athletics after defeating John Wood Community College in an 64-53 decision.

Sophomore forward Avery Ugba (Silver Springs, MD) was named the tournaments' Most Outstanding Player, while sophomore forward Tavon Mealy (Richmond, VA) and sophomore guard LeQuan Thomas (Virginia Beach, VA) was named to the All-Tournament Team. Head coach Chuck Moore was named Most Outstanding Coach.

Ugba led the Statesmen with 16 points, grabbing 13 boards for his fourth consecutive double-double in the tournament. Mealy followed with 13 points while collecting 10 rebounds and Pedro Berrios (Hopewell, VA) added 12 points.

The Statesmen shot 53 percent (16 - 30) from the floor and hit 5 of 12 3-pointers in the first half. More importantly, the Statesmen never trailed the entire game despite RBC giving up its 23-point lead in the second half.

Richard Bland outrebounded John Wood 56-45 and held the Blazers to 25 percent (5-20) from beyond the arc in the second half.

RBC opened up the game with an 12-1 spurt, and later held 28-10 lead but the Blazers would began to claw at the deficit as the second half got underway, going on an 8-0 run over the last three and a half minutes to get within five points 58-53 after RBC missed its last ten shots from the floor.

The Blazers would never get any closer than five points after as Ugba scored a layup to extend the Statesmen lead 60-53. Mealy and Melvin Gregory (Weems, VA) would sink free-throws with seconds left on the clock to seal the deal.

Paxton Smith led the Blazers with 15 points.

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

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