Stormers’ guard Troy Spears thought his late fourth quarter tomahawk dunk to put the Feb. 15 game out of reach for the Harper College Hawks was more important than the three-pointer he drained just a few plays before that gave the Stormers the lead for good in a contest that saw it change 10 times. MATC won by a final score of 89-78.
“I’d say it was the dunk. The three? It kinda got us going but overall it was the dunk that sealed it and got us the win,” Spears said afterwards.
Guard Alex Oldenburg disagreed. Oldenburg, who scored nine points on only six shots, thought the jumper with a man in Spears’ face was the bigger of the plays. “The three. We were down and he hit the three and that was huge in us turning it around,” Oldenburg stated, but not without paying credit to the emphatic slam that followed. “The dunk was huge too. It really sealed the deal.”
Both plays capped an impressive effort against a Harper team that had emerged victorious in a double overtime slobberknocker against the Stormers in January. The Stormers were happy to avenge the loss.  “It’s always good to get one back after, you know, we lost a tough basketball game. It’s hard to have any team lose in the game that was played at their place because both teams battled hard. Two overtimes. It’s hard to have any team lose that game,” Head Coach Randy Casey shared.
Guard Jermaine Brisco kept the Stormers in the game throughout, leading them with 25 points and five assists. “He changes pace for us. Our whole team, if we play the game we want to play, we can be pretty good. Lately we’ve been doing that but he’s definitely a key to our success,” Casey said.
Harper held the lead at 77-76 with three minutes to go before Spears’ defiant sniper blast from deep. “I had to take my chances. I thought I could make it and I made it,” Spears said coming out of the locker room.
Forward/Center Steve Stovall Jr. scored 14 and grabbed 10 boards for the Stormers. Forward Terrell Hayes added 14 on six/nine shooting.