Originally published on February 11, 2021

On Thursday night the Milwaukee Area Technical College men’s basketball team, the Stormers, defeated the Joliet Junior College Wolves 92-71 at Reinman Gymnasium on the campus of Alverno College.

In celebration of Black History Month, the first 100 students were given free t-shirts, the Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, was played prior to the game and fans heard facts of African American sports achievements during time-outs.

The Stormers entered contest one game behind the first place Wolves in the North Central Community College Conference. They lost to the Wolves 95-92 in their first meeting in January at Joliet. Assistant coach Travis Mrozek wanted to ensure they did not make the same mistakes,

“I just felt like we weren’t able to get into a fast pace like we normally do last time versus Joliet”, he said. “They took us out of our element, and our goal this game is to get out on the fast break and work inside out with Mason,” said Mrozek.

Defense was the in this second match up. The Stormers’ swarming defense helped to create 23 turnovers resulting several fast breaks and easy points.

Stopping freshman guard Joel Watts was also a factor the team wanted to focus on. In their previous meeting Watts scored a season high 28 points against the Stormers including seven three-pointers.  Thursday he was rendered virtually mute on offense putting up ten points in the first half.

“He had a great game last time versus us, and we just tried to help out as much on him,” said Stormer Forward Mason Johnson.  “Whether it was crashing on defense or double-teaming him, we weren’t letting him beat us,” said Johnson.

Four Stormers scored in the double digits, guard Jaylin Scott lead with a game high of 24, Johnson (19), Karl Blanton (17) and Chima Nwosu (16).

After a slow first half, Johnson up a total of 10 rebounds and 19 points on 15 shots, his 13th double-double of the year. According to Johnson, the recognition goes to the whole team.

“The credit goes to the whole team. We work harder than everybody. We practice and push each other to be better every day. Moving forward into the playoffs, we have to outwork and outplay everyone in front of us,” said Johnson.

MATC is looking to win back-to-back N4C titles for the first time in history. They have two conference games left on the regular schedule. Tomorrow at the College of Dupage and Tuesday at Rock Valley College.

Click here for more information on the Stormers:  Stormers Website

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