Mid-Michigan ousts Harper

Posted February 24, 2015 12:00 am

By Jonathan Cregier

All but one team in this week's NJCAA Division III, Region IV men's basketball tournament hails from the North Central Community College Conference.

The exception is Mid-Michigan Community College, but even the Lakers had faced Harper twice before, winning each time but only by a combined 7 points.

Mid-Michigan sure knew what to do this time against Harper in a play-in game for the Region IV bracket.

The Lakers shot 46.6 percent from the field in routing Harper 75-36.

Mid-Michigan (15-11) advances to a Wednesday game at No. 3 seed Madison Area Technical College, while Harper concludes its season with a 9-22 record.

"That one hurts," said first-year Harper coach Justin Welke. "The effort wasn't there."

The key for the vistors was holding the Hawks' two leading scorers this season, Admir Suljic and Davion Benton, to 4-for-22 shooting. Benton was Harper's leading scorer with 10 points.

"We played with a little more will to win," said Mid-Michigan coach Kaleb House.

Erick Layton led all scorers with 22 points for the Lakers.

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