Union County College is extremely proud of the Women's Basketball team who just earned the right to brag about being back-to-back NJCAA Region XIX Division II Champions.
This past weekend the Lady Owls traveled to County College of Morris for the Region XIX Division II Tournament, and once again the team's first competitor was Lackawanna College from Pennsylvania. Last year the Lady Owl's also faced Lackawanna College in playoffs and thankfully defeated them both times. This year in the Semifinal game, the Lady Owls defeated Lackawanna College 68-55. At the end of the first half Union was leading Lackawanna 30-25 and throughout the second half was able to continue to outscore them.
The following day, Union County College needed to forget the previous win and only concentrate on the next game in front of them which was the for the Region title. This was the third time this season that the Lady Owls were going up against Harcum and they knew it would not be an easy game. Union came up short in their match-up with Harcum, but Union defeated them 75-67 in their second match-up.
In Sunday's Championship game, Union County College beat Harcum 91-75, but this only came after a long fought-out game that ended in triple overtime!
At the end of the regulation game Harcum was able to force Union into overtime by making a layup with only 1.4 seconds left on the clock. During the first and second overtime Union and Harcum went back and forth battling each scoring 5 points in each overtime period. Both teams were pushed to their physical limits by now playing 50 strong minutes of basketball and one team needed to show that they wanted it more. In the third overtime period Union County College scored 16 points and shut out Harcum from scoring at all in the last overtime. This win sealed the deal on Union County College being named back-to-back Region XIX Division II Champions.
A special congratulations is in honor to sophomore Guard/Forward Shaniece Wright who was named tournament MVP and to Head Coach Cheryl Bell who was named Region XIX Coach of the Year.
Next Stop
Union County College will be traveling to Monroe College on Saturday, March 5th for the District N and District O games.
Saturday, March 5th
#2 Monroe v #3 Union, 1:00pm
#1 Dean v #4 Harcum, 3:00pm
Sunday, March 6th
Winner of game 1 v Winner of game 2, 1:00pm
Directions to Monroe College Athletic Complex
19 Lecount Place
New Rochelle, NY
