NMJC (WBB) Defeats Clarendon in Semifinal, Set to Face Eastern Arizona in National Championship

The T-Birds defeated Clarendon College 58-53 to advance to the NJCAA DI Women's Basketball National Championship for the first time since 2019.

"It was sweet revenge," NMJC women's basketball head coach Austin Mefford said. "That's kind of how this whole tournament's been is a little bit of revenge. We've been 0-2 against Arizona Western in the last three years. They beat us this year and we got the win there in Game 1. We played No. 1 Butler next. We've lost last two years to Jayhawk schools in the tournament and to be able to beat a Jayhawk school, get over the hump and then get to the Final Four after beating Walters, that was great. Tying it together today we get revenge on Clarendon after two loses to them this year. It just feels good to get the last laugh, especially after how the season went with Clarendon winning the league and winning the tournament."

The No. 16 T-Birds advance to the NJCAA DI Women's Basketball National Championship and will face No. 2 seed Eastern Arizona Tuesday, March 31 at 5 p.m. CDT on ESPN U in Lake Charles, Louisiana. 

Fans can watch the game with a TV login or subscription through Hulu+Live TV or Fubo TV. An ESPN+ login will not work for this game. You can also purchase the ESPN Unlimited Package for 29.99 to get acess to ESPNU.

The T-Birds will do a radio only broadcast on our YouTube page for FREE.

The run NMJC has been on could be described as improbable. The last team in the tournament has now won four times in six days with their sights set at the final hurdle, the NJCAA National Championship.

The journey this week started with a win over No. 17 Arizona Western which avenged the T-Birds overtime loss from earlier in the season. The next challenge was No. 1 Butler CC and the Thunderbirds came to play defeating the Grizzlies in overtime after trailing by as many as 16 points.

No. 8 Walters State had a chance to play spoiler in the quarterfinals like the Senators did in 2015 but the T-Birds grinded out their third win in a row.

No. 5 Clarendon was the final bump in the road on the T-Birds way to a national championship appearance. The Bulldogs had already defeated NMJC twice this season. This time the Thunderbirds had the last laugh as they danced their way to a 58-53 thrilling win in the national semifinal.

"It's just showed the resiliency of our team and how together they are," Coach Mefford said. "We are talking about so many games in so few days, and our depth has helped us a lot. We've been deeper than other teams. We were deeper than Clarendon tonight and it showed. They struggled to hit outside shots shooting 3-of-30. Their legs were gone where we had more depth, and we were hitting some shots from the outside. It is a long week for everybody involved. Who knows what happens tomorrow night? Everybody's been through the grind of the season of the tournament, and we just got to go play and see who's going to have the heart to pull through."

NMJC was ready to play early in the first quarter against Clarendon on Monday. The T-Birds went ahead 13-7 following a Kaycee Steinke layup. NMJC ended the first quarter with a 13-11 lead. 

The second quarter was all T-Birds with NMJC leading by 11 points, 34-23, with 23 seconds left. Clarendon was outscored 21-14 in the frame and NMJC went into halftime with a nine-point advantage at 34-25.

The third quarter was a dog fight with NMJC and the Bulldogs going blow for blow. NMJC hit three 3-pointers in the first 4:30 of the quarter via shots from Madison Wilson, Zarai Lewis, and Kaycee Steinke. Steinke's triple gave the T-Birds a 37-27 lead at the 5:30 mark. Clarendon dug their way out of the double-digit hole and cut the deficit to one possession, 45-42, at the end of the third. 

The T-Birds scoring drought for NMJC spanned from 3:46 left in the third quarter to 2:47 remaining in the fourth quarter. NMJC went 10:59 without a bucket until Jada Graves came through with a tough layup to push the T-Birds back into the lead at 47-46. Clarendon hit a layup and Graves knocked down two free throws to regain the lead 49-48 with 1:32 left. 

A missed shot by the Bulldogs led to Graves speeding down the floor and finding Madison Wilson for a huge 3-pointer from the right wing that pushed NMJC ahead 52-48 with 1:02 remaining in the game. The Bulldogs made it a one-score game with a layup at the 52 second mark. 

Graves raced down the court again and threw a cross court pass to the corner for Zarai Lewis who did not hesitate and drained a quick trigger 3-pointer which cemented the lead at 55-50 with 45 seconds left. Luisa Amaral went 3-for-4 from the free throw line in the final 30 seconds as Clarendon was unable to catch up and fell 58-53.

"Well, we couldn't score at the end of the third and to start the fourth quarter," Coach Mefford said. "There was just a lid on the basket. The ball would not fall. We had good looks, close shots, and couldn't get anything to drop. And then bang, Maddie hits one that gives us a four-point lead.  Clarendon went down and scored again, and we came back and Z took a quick three given the time and score. She was confident enough to knock it down and that gave us the separation we needed to win the game with a few more stops and making a couple free throws."

The T-Birds earn their first win over Clarendon this season (1-2) and Coach Mefford moves to 9-3 all-time against the Bulldogs.

Jada Graves did not have her best night scoring with nine points, but she did dish out eight assists and grab four rebounds. The sophomore guard has 231 assists this season breaking Melissa Nix's single-season assist record of 227 from the 1988-89 season. Graves is No. 3 in the NJCAA this season for assists and is just five assists away from taking the No. 1 spot. The Amarillo, Texas native is already the T-Bird all-time leader in assists with 357.  

"Jada makes everyone around her better on both ends of the floor," Coach Mefford said. "She makes her teammates so much better and creates opportunities for them.  She was such a focal point of the defenses in our league all year and at the national tournament where her ability to create and get past one defender and bring others. She's smart enough to see the floor kick it and get others a shot. Jada had a lot of good looks tonight, but they didn't fall. It says a lot about our team when our best player can score in the single digits, have a tough shooting night, but find a way to win."

Madison Wilson recorded her fourth double-double of the season scoring 10 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Zarai Lewis hit three triples to finish with 13 points and four rebounds. 

Kaycee Steinke registered seven points and Addison Edwards added four blocks. Edwards has 13 blocks in her last three games. 

Luisa Amaral finished with 10 points off the bench. Rekiah Bowen was the sparkplug for the T-Birds in this game scoring nine points and hitting two big 3-pointers in the first half. The T-Birds improve to 27-6 (10-4) on the season.

"Rekiah had energy today, but she always has energy," Coach Mefford said. "It's just getting it out of her in the best way. I think today I watched her warmup and she made a lot of shots during warmups. Shot it well in shootaround and had fresh legs. She hadn't played as many minutes as some of the other people in this tournament and came in offensively and defensively to give us a big boost. That's what she's capable of, it might have not been as often as we wanted this year, but she showed her ability today. Hopefully we'll get another good performance from her Tuesday."

The T-Birds shot 21-for-64 (32.8%) from the field, 9-of-22 (40.9%) from the 3-point line, and 7-of-9 (77.8%) from the charity stripe. NMJC forced 19 turnovers and held the Bulldogs to 30% from the field.

NMJC has made the NJCAA DI Women's Basketball National Championship one time before in 2019 when they fell to Gulf Coast State 68-62 Saturday, March 23, 2019.

The No. 16 T-Birds are set to play No. 2 seed Eastern Arizona in the NJCAA DI Women's Basketball National Championship on ESPN U Tuesday, March 31 at 5 p.m. CDT in Lake Charles, Louisiana. 

"It is another game, but it's bragging rights," Mefford said. "It's been a while since the WJCAC won one on the women's side. The WJCAC is trying to sweep the national titles in basketball with Howard winning on the men's side. It's bigger than NMJC, but it is also about NMJC tomorrow and just bringing it home. It's great playing on national television on ESPNU putting NMJC out there and we will see what we can do."

The last time a WJCAC team won the national championship was Odessa College in 2007.

The Gila Monsters are led by head coach Angelica de Paulo. De Paulo is in her fourth season as head coach of Eastern Arizona and is a former NMJC T-Bird alum. The Sao Paulo, Brazil native competed for the T-Birds from 2013-15 and was named an NJCAA First Team All-American and Region V Player of the Year.

"First of all, glad Angelica is not on the court playing for them," Coach Mefford said. "She was a very good player here, but they're good. They've been No. 1 probably longer than anybody this season. They were the No. 1 team going into the region tournament and Arizona Western got them in a dog fight. We're familiar with the region now. They're the team that won their region and won the regular season. Eastern Arizona has a lot of people that can shoot, they got a lot of depth, a lot of different people that can score. They're very good team, and we're going to have to be ready and have a good game plan."

Since 2012, the T-Birds have played Eastern Arizona five times with a 3-2 record. Their last matchup was Nov. 11, 2017 where NMJC won 83-43.

Eastern Arizona comes into the national championship sporting a 32-2 record with losses against CSI and Arizona Western. The Gila Monsters are 4-1 against common opponents (Odessa 1-0 & Arizona Western 3-1). The T-Birds are 3-1 against common opponents (Odessa 2-0 & Arizona Western 1-1).

Live stats can be found here. 

To keep up to date with tournament scores and action visit the tournament results page. The full bracket can be found here.