Box Score DANVILLE, Ill. – The Parkland men's basketball team struggled offensively down the stretch and the No. 13 seeded Cobras fell short, 76-59, to No. 4 seed Des Moines Area Community College in the first round of the NJCAA DII National Tournament on Tuesday morning. The Cobras made just one field goal over a ten-minute stretch in the second half and DMACC, the defending National Champions, took advantage, pulling away late in a hard-fought opening round game. The Cobras shot just 34.3% from the field and 18.8% from beyond the arc. Sophomore Savon Wykle led the Cobras offensively with 17 points and freshman Marcus Johnson (10 points, 6 rebounds) stepped up off the bench in the loss.
 
"We couldn't get the ball to drop," head coach Anthony Figueroa explained after the game, "Sometimes in basketball, it's just simple; you got to put the ball in the hole in order to compete and win games and we didn't do that at a high enough level."
 
The Cobras (21-7) fell behind early, trailing by as many as 11 points in the first half, before a Marcus Johnson three cut the Bears (26-7) lead to 18-10 with 10:37 to go. Parkland slowly cut into DMACC's first-half lead, and the Cobras trailed by just two at halftime after a 6-2 run was capped off by a Savon Wykle basket to make the score 35-33. Jamil Hardaway scored a bucket under a minute into the second half to tie the game at 35 and the Cobras took their first lead at 43-42 with 14:14 remaining. A Savon Wykle steal and a Josh Rivers layup on the next possession gave the Cobras a three-point lead. After a Bears timeout, DMACC went on a 20-4 run over the next 8:19 as Parkland's offense just couldn't make a basket and the Cobras were outrebounded 40-28 over the course of the game. With the Cobras trailing 72-55, head coach Anthony Figueroa pulled the starters with 2:19 left in the game and Parkland lost to the defending champions 76-59 in the opening round.
 
Scoring Summary:
Savon Wykle: 17 points
Josh Rivers: 11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists
Daniel Reed: 11 points
Marcus Johnson: 10 points, 6 rebounds
 
Up next, the Cobras await the loser of No. 5 seed Milwaukee Area Tech and No. 12 seed Scottsdale in the NJCAA National Tournament Consolation bracket. Tip-off for that game will be at 1:00 PM on Thursday, March 17th.