The Monroe Mustangs came onto the court on Saturday afternoon for the fifth-place game in the sixteen-team NJCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Tournament as loose as they had been all week – maybe all season – and left no doubt why they were regarded as one of the top teams in the nation before the tournament and now that the final tally is in, one of the best at the end of the tournament, too. in their final game together, the 2011-12 Mustangs put on a seemingly effortless array of dunks and three-pointers that characterized their masterful season and in the impressive 79-50 win over Columbia State, put their signature on a 33-4 season and one of the most beloved and highly-regarded basketball teams in Monroe Mustangs history. Box Score
“Our great sophomores have concluded their careers with a 64-9 overall record and a 6-2 record in the national tournament,” Coach Jeff Brustad said proudly in the interview room after the game. “You can’t do much better than that. Though we came here to win four games and we only won three, after a little bit of time passes and they move on to bigger and better things, i’m sure they will realize how special it was for them to be Monroe Mustangs.”
The unlikely star of the game was sophomore Terrell Eaddy who picked his final game to have his most prolific performance as a Mustang. To go with his 6 rebounds, Eaddy had 19 points on 8/12 shooting including four thunderous dunks that brought his teammates to their feet and qualified as exclamation points to Monroe’s superb season.
Marco Bourgault and Davon Marshall finished their Monroe careers with typically prolific shooting games. Each had 16 points on identical 4/5 three-point shooting and 2/2 from the foul line.
“Because of Monroe’s three-semester schedule, this group of sophomores have been together from September though the middle of August for two years,” Coach Brustad said. “So they have a lot of real strong bonds and like many of the Monroe players who are now playing in the NCAA, we expect they’re going to be part of Monroe basketball for a long time. Because these guys were such great players and good people, too, they certainly will be ingrained our our college’s sports legacy forever.”
