Wildcats fall in to hot-shooting Holmes in region final

CLINTON – Pearl River Community College men’s basketball coach Chris Oney probably said it best in the postgame locker room Friday night.

“I told the kids, it wasn’t the storybook ending we wanted, but we wrote a story,” said Oney.

The Wildcats were hit with an early blitz by hot-shooting Holmes and never really recovered in dropping the championship game of the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament 77-64.

Pearl River (23-5) still holds a slim chance of an at-large bid to the NJCAA Division 1 Tournament in Hutchinson, Kan., but Oney wasn’t confident that a bid would be forthcoming for the Wildcats. Holmes improved to 24-4 and will head to Kansas as region champs.

The Bulldogs opened the game on a 15-2 run and while the Wildcats got back in the game, especially in the second half, they could only cut the deficit to five, and each time Holmes had an answer.

Freshman Jonas James III (pictured left) led PRCC with a season-high 22 points, freshman Eric Thornton Jr. (Jackson) added 14 points and freshman Cedric Brim Jr. finished with 11 points for the Wildcats.