The Salt Lake Community College Bruins men’s basketball team fell just short of capturing its third national championship in program history.
Facing the Northwest Florida State College Raiders in Saturday’s National Junior College Athletic Association title game in Hutchinson, Kansas, the Bruins got into a big hole in the first half and ultimately lost 83-67.
The Bruins, who were the top seed in the 24-team tournament this week after losing just one game all season before Saturday, finished the campaign with a 35-2 record under head coach Kyle Taylor.
The Raiders won the tournament as the 10 seed.
On Saturday, things started fine enough for SLCC, as it trailed 8-7 at the 13:24 mark of the first half, but then it started to go downhill.
NFSC went on a 9-0 run and the Bruins never recovered enough. In fact, things got a lot worse in the first half before they got better in the second, as SLCC trailed 41-15 at halftime, as it was stuck on 11 points for over eight minutes as the Raiders went on a 17-0 run.
NFSC’s Brennan Rigsby, who incidentally played his high school basketball in Utah at Wasatch Academy and is committed to continue his collegiate career with the Oregon Ducks, led all scorers with 24 points.
Jaquan Scott led the Bruins with 11.