By Jon Terry
March 2, 2025
Jerry Burn’s Tribunes of Monroe Community College finally broke Bill Beilein’s Niagara County Community College Thunder Wolves chokehold on the Division II, Region 3 crown last year. As those teams square off for the 2025 title on Sunday, March 2, can MCC pull it off again this year?
The Thunder Wolves had collected 3 titles in a row prior to 2024, but were beaten by Erie Community College in last year’s semi-finals. The Tribunes, who had last one a Regional Title in 2016, whipped ECC by 20 in the 2024 Finals, and went on to win 2 games in the National Tournament.
Here’s how the teams stack up overall, against each other, and against common opponents.
| NJCAA Region III, D2 Finals 2025 | Overall | Against Common Opponents | Against Each Other | ||||
| W/L | Pt. Diff. | Points Per | W/L | Pt. Diff. | W/L | Pt. Diff. | |
| NCCC | 24-5 | 17 | 92 | 10-2 | 13 | 1-1 | 5.5 |
| MCC | 22-4 | 15 | 80 | 10-2 | 5 | 1-1 | -5.5 |
NCCC is star-driven and puts up points, with 3 guys scoring over 15 a game, led by Chioke Marshall and Jaymier Patton at 18+ per game, followed by Jalen Duff at 15. Rochester product Camron Dyer chips in with 11 a game, and 5 rebounds. The Thunder Wolves can flat-out score.
MCC features a more balanced approach. Alan Garcia leads with 11 per game, followed closely by Jaheem Tyson at 10 and Demarius McCarty at 9.5, with a bunch of good players that get minutes clustered between 4 and 8 per game. This team wins by committee, hustle, and tough defense.
NCCC Wins If they get Patton and Marshall untracked, force the Tribunes to turn it over, and get to running. In the T-Wolves 13 point home win over MCC, Patton and Marshal went off for 25+ each, and Patton had 10 – 10! – steals. If this game gets into the mid-high 70s or more, the T-Wolves are going to the national tournament. The Thunder Wolves want a fast-break, high-flying foot race, and will win by a lot of the game turns that way.
MCC Wins If they limit turnovers, force Patton and Marshall to work for their points, and again win the rebounding battle. In their early seasomn away loss to NCCC, the Tribs had a whopping 26 turnovers, though managed to out-rebound the T-Wolves on both ends of the court. The Tribs won 66-64 at home against NCC later in the season by choking Patton and Marshall into a 3 for 17 collective shooting performance, holding the T-Wolves to 30% shooting, cutting the turnvers down to 17, and again controlling the glass. It’s a famililar winning recipe for the Tribs: Defense and limit turnovers as they cannot win a shootout against this high-powered team.
Don’t miss our next column, in which we analyze the potential impact of late season trades on the NBA Championship: have they really changed the outcome, and do they ever?