By RENALDO DORSETT
Tribune Sports Reporter
rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
Deyton Albury, Paul Greene and Chipola College are now the no.2 ranked men’s basketball programme in NJCAA Division I.
Chipola improved two spots from last week’s ranking and has amassed a total of 329 points and one first place vote.
Salt Lake (10-0) took the top spot in the poll with 348 points and 12 first place votes. Odessa (13-1) is ranked third with 323 points.
Chipola needed a season high night from Greene and some late-game heroics to improve to 15-0 on the season. They completed the Florida JuCo shootout with a 70-69 win over Florida Southwestern.
Greene scored a season high 20 points and grabbed 8 rebounds off the bench while Albury scored 13.
Chipola’s Jatarian Warren hit a three pointer from the top of the key with 0.7 seconds remaining to give Chipola the win.
It was the first time all season that Chipola trailed with less than a minute left to play. They began the shootout with an 87-65 win over St Petersburg College.
Greene finished with seven points and four rebounds while Albury had eight points and five rebounds.
Greene leads the team in rebounding at 6.9 boards per game and scores 9.1 points per game in 15 games with six starts.
“Paul has been exceptional,” said head coach Donnie Tyndall.
“He’s a guy that deflects balls, he gets steals, he tips the ball in, he rotates over and gets the charge, all the gritty little winning plays and that’s been great to have from him.”
In his second year with the programme, Albury is second on the team in scoring at 13.1 points and second in rebounding at 6.3 rebounds per game and 3.3 assists per game.
Assistant coach Jaren Harris said Albury has been the catalyst of the programme’s early success.
“We’ve got a bunch of tough guys in our locker room but I think every one of our guys will say he’s the toughest guy in our locker room,” Harris said.
“From his dedication, to his willingness to be a great teammate, from his selflessness - he does everything on the floor for us.
“He’s a defender, he’s a rebounder, he’s a scorer, he’s a distributor, and he brings it everyday on the practice floor too so I think Deyton has definitely been one of our guys that has stepped up for us,” Harris said.
Chipola will host Enterprise State on Saturday, December 17.
Albury told local ABC affiliate MyPanhandle.com that Tyndall’s attention to defence has been the driving force behind the team’s successful season thus far.
“He’s really hard on us on defence, but he doesn’t recruit bad players like he always says,” Albury said. “So offence isn’t really a problem. He just draws up the motions and that his players just play.”
Chipola has advanced to back-to-back trips in NJCAA Final Four berths but has yet to capture the coveted national title.
“I said this when I got the job, the goal is to hang a big banner, and that’s a national championship,” Tyndall said. “We haven’t done that yet, so we’ve got a lot of work to do. But I feel like this team has a chance and if we can get everybody healthy to make a run at this thing again this season.”
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