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ECC falls in NJCAA Division III championship game

ROCHESTER, Minn. - The magnitude of the moment wasn't lost on either team as the Elgin Community College Spartans faced the North Lake Community College Blazers in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III tournament championship game on Saturday night in Rochester, Minnesota.

The No. 2 Seeded Spartans and the No. 5 Seeded Blazers let it fly from the opening tipoff, with the first half, and ultimately the game, belonging to the Blazers, who won the national championship game 66-56.

Defense was a big key for the Blazers, who rode a 2-3 zone defense all night long. Spartans coach Reed Nosbisch said a solid zone defense can give even the best offenses trouble, especially in Elgin's case because the Spartans just don't see a lot of it.

"I said it before last night's game," said Nosbisch, "we don't see a lot of zone. That caused a lot of problems and it allowed the double-team to come at Homer (Denson) really quickly. We just couldn't get a lot of ball penetration."

The Spartan offense lost some flow when point guard Charles Sanders had to exit the game with his second foul with 11:19 to go in the first half. An offense typically struggles when a veteran ballhandler has to sit but Nosbisch said the Spartans got some help off the bench.

"I don't think it hurt as much," he said, "because we got good play from Dez (Desmond Douglas). He hasn't see a lot of minutes lately and he gave us a charge with 7 points in the first half. We just couldn't get things going offensively, and I thought we did a pretty good job defensively."

Despite Douglas giving his team a lift off the bench in his first extended minutes of the tournament, the Spartans were still down 31-25 at halftime.

North Lake College of Irving, Texas, rode timely 3-point shooting, good work on the glass, and smothering defense in the second half, opening up leads of 20-plus in the second half. However, the Spartans didn't quit in the second half at all.

"The kids never quit," Nosbisch said. "It would have been really easy down by 22 points, but we battled back and got it down to 8 points. Ultimately, that's who we are. We don't quit and I couldn't be more proud of those kids."

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