Herkimer, NY (March 15, 2024) -  After trailing by five points at halftime by a 44-39 score, a second half surge with a pair of three pointers from Darlin Santiago (Salem) and the Northern Essex Community College men's basketball team outscored Minnesota North-Rainy River by 15 points in the second half to take a 90-80 victory and advance to Saturday's fifth place game at 12:00pm. NECC will take on Montgomery County (PA) who defeated Sandhills (NC) in the other fifth place semi-final game on Friday.

The Knights rebounded from Thursday's tough shooting performance and shot 41.8 percent (28-67) from the field in the win including a sharp 44 percent from three point range (11-25).

Luis Reynoso (Lawrence) and Edwin SamMbaka (Paris, FR) both recorded double-double performances led by Reynoso's game high 30 point performance to go along with 11 rebounds while SamMbaka had a game high 13 rebounds to go along with 13 points.

Ben Nkwantah (Methuen) added 11 points off the bench including shooting three of six behind the three point line while Santiago added eight points off the bench. It total, the Knights had 10 different scorers record at least three points.

The Knights returned to the national leading rebounding numbers as they outrebounded Rainy River by a 45-35 margin.

The win improves the Knights record on the season to 31-2 and Saturday's game will mark the second straight season in which the Knights will play in the fifth place game, where they defeated the College of DuPage (IL) last season.