BROCKTON, Mass. ---- The Massasoit women's basketball team is set to play in the NJCAA Region 21 Tournament, hosted by Springfield Tech, beginning on Saturday. The Warriors, the No. 4 seed, will face top seed and No. 1 nationally ranked Roxbury CC at Noon on Saturday in the first game of the two-day tournament.
The regional champion will earn an automatic bid to the NJCAA National Tournament, hosted by Brookdale CC in Lincroft, N.J., from March 10-12.
Tournament Schedule
Region 21 Tournament Semifinals
Saturday, Feb., 27 – at Springfield Tech (Springfield, Mass.)
Game 1: 1. Roxbury (20-2, 11-0) vs. No. 4 Massasoit (9-14, 7-5) at Noon
Game 2: 2. Gateway (12-5, 8-2) vs. No. 3 UCAP (15-9, 8-4) at 2 p.m.
Region 21 Tournament Finals
Sunday, Feb. 28 – at Springfield Tech (Springfield, Mass.)
Game 1 vs. Game 2 Winners at 1 p.m.
Roxbury Rematch
Massasoit will have the daunting task of taking on Roxbury for the fourth time this season on Saturday, having fallen to the Tigers in all three previous meetings. Both teams faced off in the MCCAC State Championship, with Roxbury prevailing 87-54 last Sunday.
Roxbury has won the last five meetings against the Warriors. The last time Massasoit defeated the Tigers was on March 2, 2014, when the Warriors won 98-95 in triple overtime of the Region 21 Championship.
The Matchup
Massasoit enters with a record of 9-14, collecting wins in three of its last five games.
The Warriors are averaging 65.8 points per game, led offensively by the trio of guards from Brockton, Natascha Elias (16.2 ppg), Geornaisha Silva-Moore (16.1 ppg) and Tatiana Dias (16 ppg).
Roxbury enters the tournament ranked No. 1 in the most recent NJCAA Division III poll, boasting a record of 20-2 and a perfect 11-0 against conference foes.
The Tigers, averaging 87.7 points, feature one of the top scoring tandems in the country in Alyssa Stewart (23.1 ppg) and Taj Lewis (24.6 ppg). The duo also crashes the boards, combining to pull down more than 25 rebounds per game.
Taryn Turns It Around
In her second season guiding the women's basketball team, head coach Taryn Johnson has seen an eight-win improvement from a season ago and posted an above .500 record against conference divisional foes (7-5).
Key Stat – The Glass
Massasoit will need to do a better job on the glass against Roxbury in the fourth meeting. Through three matchups this year, the Tigers are +65 in the rebounding margin, totaling 155 boards to 90 by the Warriors.
