PJC basketball wins region, seeded 8th in national tournament
Published or Revised March 14, 2014
The Paris Junior College Dragons basketball team is shown celebrating their NJCAA Region XIV championship on March 8, 2014. Making the all-tournament team were (top from left) Joe Haynes and Trevon Seymore, who was also named tournament MVP. Coach Chuck Taylor was named Region XIV coach of the year, and (far right) Delvin Dickerson was named to the all-tournament and First Team All Region. Sophomores Jovan Austin and Nouhoum Bocoum were named Third Team All Region. They enter the national tournament seeded eighth.
The Paris Junior College Dragons men's basketball team is headed back to Hutchinson, Kansas, after a decisive 74-63 victory over Trinity Valley Community College in the NJCAA Region XIV tournament final. Seeded number eight in the country, this will be their first trip to the national tournament since 2008.
"Obviously I'm elated," said PJC basketball coach Chuck Taylor. "We're the first team since 2000 to win the regular season and win the tournament. I thought our guys did a phenomenal job of preparing themselves. The last two weeks of the regular season helped us in the tournament, where we had a series of Monday, Wednesday and Saturday games. It prepared us for the three tournament games."
Taylor was named NJCAA Region XIV Coach of the Year at the end of the tournament. He was also named PSN Sports Region XIV Coach of the Year. Just a few months ago at the beginning of the season, fellow coaches in the region picked PJC to finish fifth in the North Zone.
"It’s always an honor when your colleagues recognize you with an award like this," Taylor said. "This could not be possible without my assistant coaches Bilal Batley, Eric Floyd, and Maurice Heade, our manager Tyler Murphy, and a tremendous group of young men who chose to come play here. I’m elated at the award and want to continue to make Paris Junior College and the Paris community proud of our program."
Taylor explained that a first round bye is an opportunity to play a team that has already played a game as well as an opportunity to watch and see everything.
"That's really good and I'm excited about that," said Taylor. "We were hoping for the bye. It shows that teams are noticing what we're doing. We're getting some respect."
PJC sophomore Trevon Seymore of Waterbury, Conn., was named the All Tournament Team's Most Valuable Player. Freshman Joe Haynes of Detroit, Mich., and sophomore Delvin Dickerson of Houston, Texas, were named to the All Tournament Team as well.
Dickerson was also named to the All Region XIV First Team. Sophomores Jovan Austin of Grand Prairie, Texas, and Nouhoum Bocoum of Harlem, N.Y., were named to the Third Team All Region.
"It was a total team effort with our fans, our community, our student body, and baseball players and cheerleaders," said Taylor. "They really helped us get over that hump and I'm really happy about that as well."
The PJC baseball team, returning from two victories against Panola in Carthage, stopped off in Tyler to see most of the final game and came down on the floor to celebrate the victory with the basketball team.
After the first round bye, the Dragons are scheduled to play at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18. They will take on the winner of a Monday game between South Plains College (Levelland, Texas) and Cape Fear Community College (Wilmington, N.C.).
The team is scheduled to leave at 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning from the Hunt Center and fans are encouraged to come cheer them on their way. PJC games will be broadcast on KOYN 93.9 FM and streamed live at easttexasradio.com. All games in the tournament sill also be televised live at www.njcaatv.org.
