Festus Ndumanya scored 16 points, Doctor Bradley scored 12 points and Jaquan Scott added 10 points as Salt Lake Community College beat Odessa (Texas) 68-66 in the National Junior College Athletic Association men’s basketball quarterfinals.
The No. 1-seeded Bruins scored their last points of the game with 3:25 left in the contest, on a pair of Scott free throws that put the Bruins up 68-62. SLCC went scoreless the rest of the way, but came up with some key defensive stops, holding Odessa to just four points in the last three minutes.
Odessa’s Daniss Jenkins missed the game-tying layup with four seconds left in the game and the Bruins escaped with the win.
“We found a way again today,” SLCC coach Kyle Taylor said in a press release. “Our guys and their resilience, toughness and grit was on full display today. It wasn’t pretty for the second consecutive game, but we came up with some clutch stops when we needed to. Odessa is really good and well-coached, and they played a great game.”
The Bruins will play in the NJCAA semifinals on Friday at 6 p.m. MDT in Hutchinson, Kansas.