Herkimer, NY (March 14, 2024) – The second seeded Northern Essex Community College men's basketball team struggled on the offensive side of the ball on Thursday evening as they fell to Riverland (MN) in a national quarterfinal by a 71-59 final score in a game in which the Knights never had a lead. With the loss, the Knights fall to 31-2 and are eliminated from national championship contention and will take on Minnesota North-Rainy River on Friday at 2:00pm in a consolation game, for the right to advance to Saturday's fifth place game.
NECC shot just 27% from the floor in the first half and trailed by 11 points at the half 37-26. In the early minutes of the second half NECC would trail by as many 14 points before surging back to cut the deficit to two points at 50-48 with just under eight minutes remaining but couldn't get any closer.
Kyoya Sasaki (Tokyo, Japan) finished with a team high 17 points on six of 11 shooting from the floor. Luis Reynoso (Lawrence) finished with a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Gabe Zorilla (Lawrence) had a strong effort off the bench for NECC as he contributed 10 points to go along with nine rebounds.
For the game, the Knights finished shooting at 33.3% (23-69) while shooting just one of 18 from three point range.