
Great Lakes District Championship Match Set: Commodores vs. Chaparrals
February 27, 2023 - - The Lorain County Community College men's basketball team will continue their playoff run with the Great Lake District Championship on Saturday, March 4. The Commodores will face the College of DuPage Chaparrals in a 2 p.m. contest inside the Physical Education Center on DuPage's campus.
LCCC punched their ticket to a second straight appearance in the district final by defeating the Owens Community College Express on February 22, 79-66.
Dupage, the No. 2 seed in last weekend's Region IV DIII Championship, defeated top seeded Madison College in convincing fashion, 85-69. The Chaparrals are currently riding a six-game winning streak and have been victorious in eight of their last nine contests.
The Commodores are looking for their first District Championship in Marty Eggleston's tenure as head coach. A win against DuPage would send the Commodores to the National Championships in Herkimer, N.Y. which starts on March 15.
Region XII Tournament MVP Lem Payne (Philadelphia, Pa./Mount Pleasant HS) is the Commodores all-around performer. He can score from anywhere on the floor, he can rebound (has failed to record multiple rebounds just twice this season), he can facilitate (sixth in the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference in assists), he can defend (set the single-season record for steals in both seasons at LCCC and leads the conference with 72), and he will most likely draw the difficult task of keeping DuPage's top scorer Drew Gaston (Shabbona, Ill./Indian Creek HS) in check.
Gaston, who turned in a 21-point performance in the Region IV title game to earn Tournament MVP, has scored 20+ points 12 times this season for Chaps. He has also led his team in steals in both seasons at DuPage, collecting 38 in his freshman year and 65 during his second season.
Attacking inside the paint for the Commodores will be Jayden Roberts (Wellington, Ohio/Wellington HS) who has set himself apart from his peers in the OCCAC by establishing himself as one of the top rebounders and scorers in his first season.
Roberts has top-ten ranks in the OCCAC in all rebounding categories as well as field goal percentage, field goals, free-throws, free throw percentage, blocks, total points, and points per game.
Opposing Roberts in the paint will be DuPage's front-court made up of Matt Elliot (Countryside, Ill./Lyons Township HS), Gerald Tate (Chicago, Ill./Yorkville HS), and Alijah Nelson (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS). Elliot made the Region IV All-Tournament team and led the Chaparrals in rebounds and blocks this season.
Roberts and Payne will be flanked by guards Casey Kelley (Amherst, Ohio/Firelands HS) and Brandon Fisher (Strongsville, Ohio/Columbia HS). Kelley has solidified himself as LCCC's main offensive facilitator, recording four or more assists 17 times this season and has started for the Commodores in the last 15 games.
Fisher can hit from anywhere on the floor. He has been the Commodores main 3-point shooting threat this season. Hitting 43% of his 3-point attempts puts him 18th in the country while his 78 total makes from downtown is 7th in the NJCAA DIII.
Commanding the sidelines for the Chaparrals is first-year coach Joe Kuhn, although it is hardly the first year coaching for the NJCAA Hall of Fame Coach (inducted in 2017). After a stellar 25-year run at fellow Region IV member Joliet Junior College, which included a national championship in 2010, he signed on to be the sixth head coach in program history at DuPage in 2022. In addition to NJCAA HOF honors, he is a member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame (2015) and NJCAA Region IV Hall of Fame (2013).
Eggleston is in his 10th season as head coach of the Commodores. It is his third trip to the Great Lakes District Championship for the longest tenured coach in the OCCAC. Eggleston's career in basketball spans nearly four decades and includes stops everywhere from pee wee to the professional ranks. Eggleston has coached both men's and women's professional teams, held administrative positions at International Sports Training Camps and Rim Rockers International Basketball Academy, and is the Student Engagement Specialist for Student Life at LCCC.
Learn more about athletics at LCCC at athletics.lorainccc.edu.