JWCC men’s monumental second-half rally falls short in Region 24 title game loss to Parkland

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Jarvis Jennings struggled with the words that could accurately depict all the emotions tugging at his heart and soul.

He didn’t need to speak. His eyes said everything.

Glassed over by tears and saddened by the finality of it all, Jennings and the John Wood Community College men’s basketball team fought like crazy over the final 20 minutes of Sunday’s Region 24 championship to keep this season alive.

Still, the Trail Blazers needed one more play or one more minute to complete an epic comeback.

Trailing top-seeded Parkland by 27 points two minutes into the second half at Lincoln Land Community College’s Cass Gym, third-seeded JWCC chiseled the deficit down to two points with 22 seconds remaining. Three free throws sandwiched around a Trail Blazers turnover allowed the Cobras to finally thwart the rally for an 80-75 victory.

“That comeback right there showed how tough we are,” said Jennings, the sophomore forward who was named the Region 24 Player of the Year after scoring 21 points. “I just wish we all could have owned that identity more, but that toughness was something we really, truly had when we needed it. We just came up a little short.”

It was enough, though, to make the Cobras sweat.

Parkland coach Anthony Figueroa admitted there wasn’t a moment where anyone could relax until Josh Rivers made two free throws with 2.5 seconds left in regulation.

“It was an exhale, scream, sigh of relief, excitement, jubilation,” Figueroa said. “It was all of that wrapped up in one.”

For the Trail Blazers, whose season ends with an 18-14 record and one game shy of another NJCAA Division II national tournament appearance, there was a mix of disappointment, regret, tears and pride.

“You can’t be mad,” JWCC second-year shooting guard Brandon Kracht said. “Getting to play in a championship game is what we worked for all year. You can’t be mad or sad about that. This is what we wanted all year. We just came up short.”

A humbling first half is the reason for it.

The Trail Blazers trailed 27-21 with seven minutes remaining in the half before the Cobras went on a 13-0 run spanning 4½ minutes. A 9-2 run to close the half gave Parkland a 49-26 advantage and left JWCC game planning for how to attack such a deficit.

“At halftime, we told them to get it to 10 at 5,” said JWCC coach Brad Hoyt, who challenged his team to trim the Cobras’ advantage to 10 points with five minutes remaining. “We had goals at the 15-minute mark, the 10-minute mark. We had these goals, and if we hit them, we knew we had a shot.

“I told them if we hit them I’d do everything I can to keep us in it at that point.”

Although Parkland scored on its first three possessions of the second half to go up 56-29, the Trail Blazers’ switch to a zone defense beguiled the Cobras and led to a 6-minute, 13-second drought. And by the 10-minute mark, the Trail Blazers had reached one of their benchmarks, trailing 60-45.

“We’ve been in the moment and we know what we’re capable of,” Kracht said. “We had to come out and be John Wood.”

Defense stops were paramount, too.

“Get score, stop, score,” Kracht said. “Get score, stop, score.”

It resulted in chiseling the deficit to single digits with 6:28 remaining as Daylon Dalton finished a three-point play to get JWCC within 67-58. By the five-minute mark, the deficit was reduced to 69-62 on the heels of a Garrett Snow layin.

The Trail Blazers couldn’t get closer than six until Dalton, who saw extensive minutes after starting point guard Gabe Cox suffered an ankle injury less than three minutes into the second half, hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to make it 77-74 with 44.2 seconds left.

The Cobras turned the ball over on the next two possessions, and Jennings split a pair of free throws with 22 seconds left to get the Trail Blazers within 77-75. Parkland’s Sean Ealy split a pair of free throws with 20.4 seconds to go, giving JWCC a shot at tying the game.

However, trying to attack from the left wing, Kracht lost control of the ball and was recovered by the Cobras to end the comeback.

“I turned the ball over,” Kracht said. “That’s on me.”

But he took it in stride, knowing this team gave itself a chance with an epic rally. The only thing missing was the climactic ending.

“We’ve had to have some fight to us,” Hoyt said. “We gave them a fight, and I’m so proud of them for that. I love them.”