Bears Secure First Postseason Win Since 2017
IRVING, Texas – Dallas College Brookhaven men's basketball team beat Dallas College Cedar Valley 85-75 Wednesday in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III South Central District quarterfinals at Dallas College North Lake.
It was the Bears' first postseason win since 2017.
Brookhaven (13-18) advances to Friday's 5 p.m. semifinals at Dallas College Richland (20-8).
Anshuman Deora scored 20 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and had one steal, helping lift the Bears out of a big hole in the first half. It was his seventh double-double of the season. He was 8 for 12 from the floor. Brandon Webber also scored 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting.
Cedar Valley (5-23) raced out to a 10-point lead when Larry Lyons sank a pair of free throws seven minutes into the game. Deora entered the game, and scored. He followed that up with the first three-pointer of his two-year Bears career at the 8:35 mark as Brookhaven pulled within five. Deora sank a pair of free throws to make it a three-point game. With 4:42 left in the first half, he scored again to give the Bears a 34-33 lead. All of it came during a stretch when he singlehandedly took over the game, scoring 13 straight points to help the Bears erase the double-digit deficit.
"My team needed me," Deora said. "They told me before in the locker room, 'Ansh, we need you to lock in. We want you to hit the threes.' I've been shooting long twos the whole season. So they were like, 'Just take a step back, and hit the three.' So I think today, I found my game.'"
Jordyn Johnson, who scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half, buried a triple as Cedar Valley reclaimed a five-point lead. The Suns, who hit five 3s in the opening half, led 43-38 at the intermission.
Brookhaven, which shot 58.6 percent from floor, opened the second half with a 7-0 run to take a two-point lead. Tyler Targonski scored, and then sank a free throw 2:50 into the second half to put the Bears ahead 45-43.
Matt Lawrence canned a triple with 12:15 remaining to cap a 12-6 run as the Suns climbed back in front 55-51. Jovan Danner converted a three-point play less than a minute later as the Bears regained control, and Deora scooped up a loose ball and scored at the 8:08 mark to bump the lead to six. Jeremy Roman scored with 6:39 to go to stretch Brookhaven's lead to nine.
Roman finished with 16 points, nine rebounds, two steals and a block.
Cedar Valley's J'Ylon Nobles hit a triple in the second half as the Suns trimmed the gap to four. But the Bears ran off the next six points to put it away.
Nobles finished with 19 points, including 16 in the second half, eight rebounds, a steal and a block. Lawrence added 14 points for the Suns, who hit nine triples.
Danner had 14 points, four rebounds and three steals.
The last time Brookhaven moved on to the second round of the postseason, the Bears met Richland, whom they'll see on Friday.
"The feeling's awesome," Deora said. "Making history."