The NCMC Men's Basketball season came to a close on Friday when the Pirates lost a closely contested Region 16 Tournament game to St. Louis Community College 67-62.  With the loss, the Pirates ended the year with a 17-11 record.

The Pirates came out in the first half and were playing well, holding a 41-25 lead at the break.  The second half was a different story.  "We had a really unfortunate second half and ending to our season Friday night.  Everything that we did so well in the first half just did not carry over to the second and we struggled finding any positive momentum. Credit to St. Louis as they stepped up their intensity on defense and hit some crazy shots," remarked Coach Esry.

Leading the offense for the Pirates was Jalen Gant with 16 points and Jordan Reece with 12 points.

The game was a bit of a microcosm of the Pirates' season as a whole.  "Putting two strong and consistent halves together was kind of our Achilles heel all year and it showed itself again in the region tournament," added Esry.

"One thing that our guys always did was play hard and I'm proud of them for that. We fought a lot of adversity this year with injuries and the next man up was always ready to step in, take charge and play hard.  A special thank you to our sophomores, Jalen Gant, Ryan Ward, Harris Cameron, Chance Edwards, Jordan Leonard and MJ Johnson, as they made our program better than it was before they got here and we are excited for the future and what we having coming back with our talented freshman class," Esry concluded.