SLCC wins Region 18 crown over No. 3 CSI

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — At one point in Saturday's Region 18 championship game, a College of Southern Idaho fan frustratingly admitted out loud that Salt Lake Community College's Brian Green was "unreal."

On this night, that description could be used to describe the Bruins' whole team.

Green scored 27 points — hitting five 3-pointers along the way — and fourth-ranked SLCC stunned the third-ranked Golden Eagles 81-77 to claim the conference championship.

The upset victory, which was nerve-wrackingly up for grabs until the final seconds, gives the Bruins (29-3) a golden ticket to the NJCAA national tournament that begins in a week in Hutchinson, Kan.

"We played our guts off. We all played tough. That's the best feeling in the world — (30-2) we get to go to 'Hutch,'" said Green, a former Davis High standout who earned tourney MVP honors. "We have a lot of heart to come in here, in a packed house at CSI and beat these guys."

After leading for most of the game, however, SLCC had to sweat out the final seconds. The Golden Eagles trimmed the Bruins' lead to 78-77 with a pair of free throws with 46.5 seconds remaining, and then CSI forced SLCC and a double-teamed Green into a turnover with some scrappy defense with about 12 ticks left.

That, though, is when the Golden Eagles surprisingly almost literally handed the game over to the visiting Bruins. Coming out of a timeout with 6.4 seconds remaining, CSI's Nick Hansen made a bad inbounds pass that went out of bounds on the other side of the court to give SLCC the ball back.

Yahosh Bonner put SLCC up 79-77, hitting one of two free throws, and then CSI made another uncharacteristic mistake. An inbounds pass with four seconds remaining bounced off of Reggie Guyton's leg into SLCC's bench, giving the Bruins the ball back.

SLCC big man Papa Samba Guisse then clinched the championship for the Bruins by making a layup with 0.9 seconds remaining. DaVell Jackson, who played this game after missing the past two because of a suspension, stole the last-second pass and the SLCC celebration was on.

Quite the shocker for the silent and stunned home crowd, whose team had represented Region 18 (the Scenic West Athletic Conference) at the NJCAAs for four years in a row. The Bruins were the only team to beat CSI this season — once two weeks ago when the Eagles were ranked No. 1 in the nation and then again Saturday when it counted most.

This will be the Bruins' first trip to the NJCAA tournament since 1994, when they finished fifth.