Roane State Community College

Raiders repeat as TCCAA champions

March 7, 2023

HARRIMAN, Tenn. – For the second time in as many years, the Roane State Raiders men’s basketball team defeated the Dyersburg State Eagles to claim the NJCAA Region VII / TCCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. With the win, the Raiders will receive and automatic bid to the upcoming National Tournament.

The championship contest was tied 29-29 at the intermission. Throughout the second half, the two teams swapped leads like heavyweight boxers swapping punches.

With 16.6 seconds remaining to be played, the Raiders had the ball and a one-point advantage, 70-69.

Dyersburg state stole the ball when the Raiders attempted to pass it inside for a shot. The Eagles to quickly moved the ball to their end of the court where Daryl Houston laid it off the glass to give Dyersburg a 71-70 lead with only eleven-seconds to be played.

On the ensuing in-bounds, Dyersburg batted a Roane State pass out of bounds.

This time, the Raiders would bring the ball in from side back court with only 9.9-seconds remaining.

Devin Perry received the in-bounds pass and quickly got the ball across half court. Then, with 3.8-seconds showing on the clock, Perry launched a three-point attempt from the right side. The shot missed, but Roane State’s Cearius Warren came flying in from the left side to tip-in the errant attempt to give the Raiders the lead, 72-71.

After a brief celebration, the officials placed .3-seconds back on the game clock. Dyersburg could not get a shot off before time expired and the Raiders and their fans celebrated the team’s second-ever conference tournament title.

During the regular season, each team won games on their respective home courts making Tuesday’s championship game the rubber match in the series.

Getting to the championship game was an uphill battle for both squads.

Roane State was the number three seed coming into the tourney. In their quarter-finals match on Sun., March 5, the Raiders narrowly escaped being upset by Southwest Tennessee. A missed free throw by Southwest with .1-second remaining in regulation could have sent the game to overtime. Instead, the Roane men moved forward with a 70-69 win.

In the semi-final round on Mon. March 6 against second seeded Chattanooga State, the Raiders’ Devin Perry connected on a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give the Raiders an 89-86 win.

Dyersburg came into the tournament as the number five seed. On Sunday, the Eagles bested the fourth seeded Walters State by ten points, 85-75.

In Monday’s semi-finals round, the Eagles knocked off top-seeded Columbia State, 73-66, setting the stage for Tuesday’s championship re-match.

Tournament MVP Sebastian Tidor led all scorers in the contest with 29 points. Devin Perry added 16 for the Raiders while Isaiah Poore chipped in ten points.

Greg Gordon scored a double-double for the Eagles with 28 points and eleven rebounds. Wynton Brown had 18 points in the loss while Daryl Houston contributed 13 points.

The Raiders will move on to the NJCAA National Championship March 20-25. The tournament will be held at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, Kansas.