Kirkwood whips No. 1 Triton for national title
DANVILLE, Ill. - The Kirkwood Eagles nearly gave their coach and fans a heart attack Saturday night by missing a bunch of free throws in the final minutes of the NJCAA championship game, but they survived the ordeal and left the gym at Danville Community College with huge smiles and the biggest prize in junior college men's basketball.
The sixth-ranked Eagles whipped top-ranked Triton College, 83-76, in the finals of the NJCAA Division II tournament to claim the second national title in school history.
Kirkwood missed 11 free throws in the final four minutes and two seconds, but managed to hang onto the lead and cut down the championship nets.
"All right!," Coach Bryan Petersen exclaimed as he snipped the final strand and displayed the net to the Kirkwood players and fans.
Petersen, 28, was a junior college All-American at Kirkwood in 2007 before becoming a two-year starter at Iowa State. Now he's led the Eagles to the national championship in just his third year as head coach.
"It still hasn't quite set in yet on what we just did, but I couldn't be more happy for our kids and what they did with the special run this week and all year," he said. "Pretty cool stuff."
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