Despite Covid setback, Chargers ready for postseason
PLYMOUTH — Ancilla College’s men’s basketball team was hit with a late-season Covid setback, but the top-ranked Chargers are still be a key team in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II Region 12 Championships.
Ancilla saw its final two regular season games cancelled due to quarantine protocols from contact tracing, but the team still earned the top seed in the District B Championships. Based on their seed, the undefeated Chargers (13-0, 7-0 MCCAA) and the Michigan Community College Athletic Association West Division champs, received a bye for the first round and will host all games they play in the Regional 12 tourney. Three nationally-ranked teams are part of the field.
“We hope the layoff hasn’t slowed us much,” said Brian Pearison, Ancilla’s basketball coach. “Having not played in almost two weeks and having had to halt practice is not a way we wanted to head into regionals. Hopefully the guys can push through the adversity and play well tonight.”
Tonight Ancilla will host No. 17 Mott Community College. The Chargers defeated Mott, 102-76, back on Feb. 26 at home. A win tonight would pit Ancilla against either No. 6 St. Clair County Community College or Muskegon CC in the championship game Saturday at 3 p.m. The Chargers have defeated Muskegon twice this year, but have not faced St. Clair. The regional winner heads to nationals April 20 in Danville, Ill.
Postseason notebook
This is the second time in Ancilla’s history the team has been ranked No. 1. The last time was during the 2017-18 season when the team went 29-3 and lost in the regional championship. Ancilla was ranked third in the country at the time of the regional tournament.
The 2018-19 Ancilla team did make it to the national tournament, finishing eighth.
Ancilla lost in the regional championship in 201920. There was no national tournament due to the pandemic.
The MCCAA went to three divisions this year due to Covid. Each team played the teams in their division twice and they had four games against teams from other divisions.