Macomb Monarchs win NJCAA tournament opener
Macomb Community College made a good first impression.
Aidan Rubio scored 25 points to lead the Monarchs to a 72-59 victory over Chesapeake in the first round of the NJCAA Division II national men’s basketball tournament at Danville, (Ill.) on Tuesday.
Coach Hassan Nizam’s Monarchs led 11-2, never trailed and made 54.5 % of their shots (30 of 55) from the field at the Mary Miller Gymnasium to record the program’s first tournament victory and advance to a secondround game.
Cameron McEvans scored 11 points and Jaylen Daughtery 10 for Macomb (26-7), one of 16 teams that qualified for the tournament.
“So proud of this group and coaching staff,” Nizam wrote in a Facebook post. “Ready to go from the tip and controlled the game for 40 (minutes).”
Lamont Powell scored 19 points and Justin Demaria 16 for Chesapeake (29-5), a Wye Mills, Maryland, school that trailed 33-23 at halftime.
Macomb, the No. 8 seed, plays top-seeded and undefeated Davidson-Davie in a quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Rubio made 10 of 16 shots from 3-point range. Rubio and Linden Holder had two triples apiece.
McEvans also had six rebounds and three assists. Daughtery had nine rebounds and Kareem Aburashed seven points and eight rebounds. Tymias Williams had seven points and seven rebounds. Holder made four assists and took four rebounds.
Chesapeake, the ninth seed, made 24 of 70 shots for 34.3%.
Davidson-Davie (33-0), from Lexington, N.C., advanced with an 83-77 victory over Florida Gateway.
Henry Ford, champion of the MCCAA East, advanced by defeating Arkansas State Mid-South 83-74.
Chesapeake plays Florida Gateway in a consolation game Wednesday.