The NECC Knights lost the Region 21 finals in the road to Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) Knights 79 to 67 on Feb. 27.

Before the game, I told Coach Stratton the two best team in the Region 21 is facing off a chance to win a championship

“We are excited for the opportunity hopefully we can play well. CCRI it’s a tough team they only have three loses all year so they tough to beat, especially in their home court it’s going to be extremely difficult I think we got to play a perfect game to do so,” he said.

Stratton say the key to beat CCRI to win the Region 21 championship was  “we have to take away number 24 and number 34 both excellent rebonders that averaging in the high 20s last two games. I think they average over 24 rebound a piece so in order to win we got to keep them off the glass,” Stratton said.

He also told me when he got home after winning the semi-final game to Quincy he was doing a little bit of homework. He started to watch tapes of CCRI to have a strategy to beat them.

It was a 3:00 p.m. tip off at the Vincent A. Cullen Field House building in Warwick,  Rhode Island.

The NECC Knights won tip off against CCRI.

Metin Yavuz of Istanbul, Turkey made the two pointer and Cristian Kinsley of Lawrence made a three pointer.

CCRI was dominating NECC Knights.  CCRI was in a 27 to 7 run. NECC Knights wasn’t playing aggressive.

“I think we didn’t played half way well until the last maybe 6 or 7 minute of the first half and tribute to CCRI they just dominate us today there is no other things I can say about it,” Stratton said.

Daniel Amarante of Lawrence had a few fouls during the first period which hurted the team that him and the number 24 from CCRI almost got double technical.

Elijah Haas thru the ball away CCRI took advantage of it and was making points of the opportunity that NECC Knights missed and couldn’t capitalize. Stratton believe that CCRI played better than them and the difference was playing in Rhode Island.

The Men’s Knights Basketball season come to an end losing to CCRI the 2021-22 Knights was trying to make history by becoming the first Men’s Basketball in program community college history to win a Region 21 championship. They failed short to do it if NECC Knights won they would’ve automatically go in the national tournament in Rockford, Illinois. Acording to NECC Knights Instagram page “Knights will await word on a possible large bid to national tournament.”

The NECC Knights defeated Quincy College on  the road 86 to 78. Knights are moving on to the Region 21 tournament.

Heading into Feb. 26 game the Knights had lost a  game during the regular season to Quincy College.

“I think Quincy is the most talented basketball team in our region and I think it’s going to be a challenge for us but I think we are ready to go I am excited,” Stratton said.

Stratton hadn’t envasion to be in the final four after a roller coaster in the fall semester “I know I didn’t. I felt we had the capability of doing this but it was a matter of putting together and then once we put it together anything we can envasion, it is a great group of kids when the kids buying in defensively great things happen and hopefully we can have a better performance today…,” Stratton said.

72 minutes before the game the team was already at Quincy getting ready and prepared before the game doing their normal pregame routine.

Knights won the tip off against Quincy. It wasn’t looking good for the Knights. Quincy was in a 11-2 run to begin the game “I saw Quincy was making a lot of easy shots a lot of easy opportunity and I felt the only way to beat Quincy was to use our bench like I said from the beginning we are very deep when we want to be…” Stratton said.

Philip Cunningham of Haverhill was in a fast start, scoring 4 of the 6 points for the Knights to begin the game as he finished the game with 20 points.

Stratton was arguing multiple times with the referee “Well I got frustrated to open the game 5-0 fouls and we were getting just hit… what kinda aggravated at me a little bit was touch foul early in the other end they called against us that Daniel (Almarante) got hammered down the other side they were no foul so all I wanted is some kind of consistency, which they got together the referees I express my opinion and they got together and start calling it more officiant and more better and equal out the foul opportunity cause both team are overly aggressive so that’s all I was looking for consistency,” Stratton said.

The Knights were losing 31-19 with just 6 minutes and 34 second in the first period the Knights made it a little interesting almost at the end of the first period.

The Knights were losing at the half 47-33 7 fouls for Quincy and 8 fouls for the Knights.

In the second period Cunningham was in the free throw line for a chance for a 3 point play after he made the shot inside the basket and it was on one.

Daniel Almarante of Lawrence had a turnover for the Knights in the second period.

It fired the Knights up when NECC Basketball head coach Stratton took out his sweet shirt during the middle of the second period with 10 minutes and 35 second left “I got animated,  I want to show the kids it is right there for them in the taken we were playing for the last 10 minutes so we were pressing we were running when our presses running effectively there isn’t a team in the country that can play with us…” Stratton said.

The Knights finally tied the game at 68 on 4:40 left in the second period and 20 seconds later the Knights were up 70-68. The referee gave a technical foul to Quincy head coach after the referee gave a technical all the referee huddle together and determine they going to give him a warning.

“I think the technical was warranted I think both of us were animated and we both were looking for some consistency tonight it wasn’t one of the consistent night and I am glad that we came on top but the officials didn’t win or loss this basketball game our team took it and won this basketball game,” Stratton said.

Both team had 10 fouls in the second half.

“After leaving that game they we doing a lot of stuff in social media that I don’t have but the kids were telling me and the other day Thursday at practice I came up with the game plan to beat this basketball team and I was very confident there weren’t a lot of confident people that we could do that they said that they are too… I don’t worry about anything everyone is beatable… I send out a group text the score of our last game 90 to 63 to every single person and they told you I did it over and over again cause I want them a reminder that that wasn’t us that we are better than that and from day one I thought that this team had a chance to do something special and they are in the break of that and hopefully going into tomorrow to do something special,” Stratton said.

I asked Matt D’Amato of Peobody I asked him how it is feel to head to the Region 21 a chance to win it all “It feels amazing we worked so hard all year for this and know we have a chance to get it done know one is more excited than us we (are) ready to go,” he said.

The Knights defeated Springfield Technical Community College on the first round quarterfinals of Region 21 tournament 84 to 56 and move on to the semi-finals.

The Knights were  back in the playoff for the first time in four years as they faced Springfield, who the Knights defeated 75-58 earlier this month.

On Feb 19. to finish the regular season the Knights played poorly but on Feb. 23  it was a completely different team,  more the team that we know in the second half of the season.  “I think you will see a better performance from the boys tonight we had an excellent two days of practice the boys are really focused in I think we really excited to get in rolling understanding the magnitude of tournament play that is win or go home so the boys are really focused at practice and I expect a good effort tonight,” Stratton said.

The key of the game was defense in order to move on to the semifinals “I think the key is to play well defensively. When we playing well defensively we are as good as anybody in the country. When we playing very poorly we have difficult beating a JV basketball team… I expect a big performance from us defensively… Springfield Tech has pretty two good excellent basketball player Barbosa and Ortiz which I think Cristian Kinsley is going to draw Ortiz early on Daniel is going to draw Barbosa early on I expect a good effort from them if we can take those 2 basketball player away…” Stratton said.

Stratton said the playoff atmosphere really makes a difference.

“… I think it’s going to be another battle another hard fought battle tonight that hopefully we can continue victories and continue the basketball season,” Stratton said.

The Knights won tip off against Springfield Tech. The Knights started the game aggressive and were on a 16-2 run in a span of 5 minutes and 11 seconds before Cunningham draw a fouls “Cunningham is a valuable part of our program he just been on foul problem lately so his been a valuable part for us and we need Phillip to stay off foul trouble if we going to have any success to move forward,” Stratton said.

The Knights had a 20 point lead they were up 29-9 with just seven minutes left in the first period.

“We had a good game plan going in. We were taking away Ortiz. He has been a killer he is one of the top 5 scoring leaders in the Region. We felt if we took him away the rest of the team will follow which we were pretty successful  in doing Cristian Kinsley, Matt D’Amato, Elijaa Hass, Greg Duran those four guys that covered him did an excellent job. He really couldn’t get into his rhythm we held him to a season low seven points at half time and I thought in a couple of those that were contested shot and made really good shots,” Stratton said.

The Knights were up 38-19 at half. The Knights had 5 fouls in the first half and 6 in the second half. That’s the Knights season low allowed against the other opponents throughout the season scoring 19 points at the half.

The start of the second period they were a five-minute delay the shot clock was not working that they had to turn the lights back off and back on.When the delay was over the Knights went back to business, they still had something on the tank.

The Knights they were on 12-3 run to begin the period “I thought we came out of the half,  we didn’t want Springfield Tech to gain any life we only made couple adjustments at half time that we executed right away coming out of the half we brought our big to run the lane straight down the court… and as you saw Kevin got a wide open lay up pass from pass from Daniel then we hit Metin couple possession later same type of run that we came out of the second half with so we were happy with the adjustment that we had,” Stratton said.

Ezequiel Barning of Brampton, Ontorio “The mentality was to stay focused don’t get to excited because we have a lead the game is not over until it is over keep executing even if you have a good lead keep executing execute execute all the way until the end,” he said.

On Feb 19 Knights return back home for a noon tip off and lost 90 to 63 against Quincy College to finish the regular season and snap a 14 game winning streak.

Both teams already clinched a playoff spot but this game it’s more than that.

The playoff seeding still haven’t been determined until the last game of the regular season the winner of this game will secured at least two playoff home games and the number two seed for the Region 21 tournament the loser only have one home game secured and the number three seed.

The Knights clinched the third seed and Quincy clinched the second seed .

Before the game the Knights honor Matt D’Amato of Peabody and Daniel Almarente of Lawrence. This was their final regular season game.

“I established this back in 2005 or 06 I believe that all of my sophomore how come in this program and don’t have any eligibility left they get a basketball from their teammates signed and today it was Daniel and Matt D’Amato…” Stratton said.

Stratton said this game would be an opportunity avenge a loss from earlier in the season.

” The two hottest team in the region is facing of… it should be a great game,” Stratton said.

Daniel Almarante of Lawrence did not played on Thursday last game against Massasoit because the death of his grandfather. “I spoke with Daniel I know he is having a difficult time him and his family and I actually offered to give him the opportunity to not play tonight as well but yesterday at practice he said he wants to play he wants to try to work through it so Daniel is a warrior no matter what I know it was killing him not to play and be there with the team the other night but he did the right thing and family always come first that’s what I believe,” Stratton said.

Stratton said Quincy has a size advantage against the Knights “…They’ve got a tremendous size on us if we don’t stay discipline and block out and use ball fake it’s going to be a long night for us…,” Stratton said.

Quincy had two players coming into the game with top five 3 point percentages. Dougles Alverez was  shooting 45.2 and Jeremeh Steplen was  shooting 42.6.

Stratton said he hoped the Knights would be able to guard the two players more and prevent them from making three pointers.

Ismal Fafana is shooting 53.2 percentage from the field goal the key to minimize the big three heading into tonight game.

Mehmet Asik of Ankara Turkey did not play in the season finale with a hamstring injury that he has been battling.

Knights did not came aggressive as they usually were in the past home games to started off the game they started slow they were missing shots into the bucket.

The Knights won the tipoff against Quincy. Knights did not came aggressive as they usually were in the past home games to started off the game they started slow they were missing shots into the basket.

In the first period they were a few turnovers.

“We made a lot of turnovers, we became very undisciplined we made a lot of mistakes a lot of physical stuff that we made…” Stratton said.

In the first period Alves, point guard for Quincy made 3 straight 3 pointer. He finished the first period with 4 three pointer’s and 17 points. Quincy throughout the game scored 12 three pointers.

“We were not just contesting shots… we had our hands down we weren’t up in their grill,  we  we didn’t coach well at all my self, Coach Tardif, Coach Nofi we didn’t coach well at all and we have to start reevaluating our self,” Stratton said.

The Knights ended the first period on a 10-4 run but it wasn’t enough for the Knights to go back to the locker room with a lead. “We just had some guys made some plays we wanted to get we wanted to speed the game up getting in tradition and that’s who we were doing and obviously just we didn’t able to continue it, player Cameron Stratton said.

The Knights was losing 48 to 34 they were down by 14 at the half. Knights had 3 fouls during the first period while Quincy had 4.

Coach Stratton broke the white board after a time out. One of the assistant coaches had given the white board to Stratton to draw the next moves they were going to make. “I was aggravated at the way we were competing I was aggravated more of my self then the players. We just really weren’t mentally and physically ready to play and I just got aggravated and… got frustrated more frustration than anything I was more frustrated more myself then the players,” Stratton said.

The Knight got completely blown out Ashton Ventola of Danville, N.H. who played seven minutes told me “We just got to be better that’s it there is no other explanation we just got to be better we have to play better we have to be better,” he said.

Elijah Hass he was the team leader with just 11 points during the game and for Quincy the top two leaders it was Alves scoring 23 points and Stephens scoring 22 combining 45 points together.

The Knights had Ventola, Cameron Stratton and Matt Logue of Windham N.H. without scoring points during the game.

Mehmet Asik of Anakara, Turkey was named for the first time in his career NJCAA National player of the week due to performance from Feb. 6 to Feb. 13.

According to neccknights.com “he averaged 21.5 points and 14.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the pair of games.”

During that week he helped the Knights to defeat Springfield Technical Community College and also a key part in a classic game against Quinsigamond Community College, in which he hit a game tying three pointer at the buzzer to forced overtime.

The Knights  eventually won that game  to keep the streak alive.

He told me about his reaction “I saw it after the practice I was really surprise, I was happy but I didn’t know what to say,  I was just happy and really surprised. That was something that I didn’t expect but I am happy for it,” he said.

“I don’t exactly remember who told me but someone from the team told me they shared the post on Instagram,  also shared on twitter and I went and check and I saw the news and I was ‘wow’,” he said.

When he told his parents the news they were so happy, Asik told me.

He like to thank his family he mentioned to me “My family, for sure, my family.  I am at this point because of my family they supported me no matter… my family and I know myself and also coach Tardiff and coach Stratton they believed in me and they brought me here. They  helped me to be here so I am thankful for all of those,” he said.

He also would like to thank Tamer Turkman who is a family friend of his.

On Feb. 17 NECC Knights faced Massasoit Community College on the road. It was a huge game for the Knights they won the conference champion Massachussets Community College Athletic Conference Championship (MCCAC) by defeating Massasoit on the road 79-77. This was the Knights 14 win in a row that it tied the 2006-07 Knights basketball team.

“I think it will be a great opportunity for us here at Massasoit. It’s going to be a really though game Jim Stapleton always does a great job,  has his team ready to play, great bunch of kids I think it will be a great think for the kids to enjoy I told them to enjoy every game as it comes and hopefully this is another one we can enjoy together,” Stratton said.

I asked  Stratton if kids pay attention to winning streak like this, chasing for history.

“I think they just play basketball, one game out a time, see where it takes us…right know they are  focused on Massasoit. I haven’t heard one of the kids talk about winning streak or anything that we’ve  been doing except for let’s go get you know a victory against Massasoit. So we are pretty focused and ready to go,” he said.

The Knights need to control Amari Andrew Brown how is averaging 26.1 points per game heading Feb. 17 contest.

Stratton said he planned to put multiple players on him, especially Cristian Kinsley to deny him a chance to score.

The Knights knew they need to control Eril Tucker Jr. who scored 20 points back in Dec. 9 against the Knight. He is another key factor heading into Feb 17.

The Knights did not start aggressive unlike Massasoit to begin the game, Massasoit were on a 7-2 run to begin the game.

Ashton Ventura of Danveille, N.H., got technical foul for swearing to the referee and did not play for the rest of the game.

Stratton got upset during the first period and he told me what caused his frustration “There is a lot that went on,  we were picking technical fouls and we were doing a lot of stuff that were uncharacteristic and I think it has a lot to do to we didn’t called one set until 10 minutes left in the first half so I got frustrated with that and credit to Massasoit they exposed us tonight and took advantage of our weakness and almost coast us the basketball game,” Stratton said.

Metin Yavuz of Istanbul Turkey who played 20 minutes and scored 4 points with 7 rebounds during the game told me “We could’ve done better our bench really helped us out… after they executed we started to pull it back together,” Yavuz said.

The Knights got a little momentum and start getting in rhythm during the middle of the first period “We played much better we talked about it off the bench after a time out and we started to get after a little bit more especially in the second half,” Stratton said.

Stratton didn’t went to the locker room right away at the half. He talked to his coaching staff before he went to the locker room to talk to his player and the reason because of that he told me it was “We felt three basketball players were really hurting us tonight and they were doing an excellent job we tried to take them away in the second half which Cameron did an unbelievable job with number 11 (Alex Morrison) and we put bunch of guys Phillip (Cunningham), Cristian (Kinsley) , Elijah (Hass) and Greg (Duran) on number 3 (Amari Andrew Brown) and we took away number 22 (Foabi Mbamuku) with just one defender, the kids listen and did very well,” Stratton said.

In the first period the Knights had 8 fouls and Massasoit had 7 the Knights was losing 38-37.

In the first seven minutes and 39 seconds the Knights were a completely different team then the first half. The Knights were on 22-10 run in the second period. Mehmet Asik who played 20 minutes and 19 points told me the key of the game to beat Massasoit was “I believe at that point we were looking for somebody to give us some point and keep us in the game  and Elijah (Hass) give us nine straight point and couple three on midrange like he always do he help us really much,” Asik said.

Stratton told me the spark what happened in the second period “… I challenged them at half and basically said they got to come and compete. We weren’t competing we got rebound by 13 rebound in that first half and that is very uncharacteristic of us. I think the kids got it together and we were much much better in the second half, ” he said.

The Knights were up 79-77 with just 7.7 seconds remaining Mehemet was in the free throw line and he miss both shots which it give Massasoit at least to tie the game to send it to overtime or a game winning three pointer.

Instead the game ended with one of the Massasoit players dribbled the ball in the three point line he pass the ball to the referee thinking that it was one of his teammates it run out of time. The Knights hold on to win a nail biter 79-77 in the road to secure the Massachusetts Community College Athletic Conference.

NECC Basketball is a family activity for head coach Darren Stratton. Son Cameron Stratton of Haverhill and nephew Matt Logue of Windham N.H., are both on the team.

During the interview process we went in depth to get to know a little more about the Stratton family. Stratton say Cameron previously served as a manager and son Nicholas also was a manager. His another son Talan also currently play at Central Catholic.

Basketball is huge for the Stratton family. Advice that Stratton gave Cameron and Matt was “to work hard every day and to compete. So, we want them always to compete and always to work hard and that’s the best advice that I gave them coming up before for me here at the college,” Stratton said.

Stratton will cut his son and his nephew if they don’t perform well in the tryout. Cameron Stratton said his not surprised by his father comments. Matt Logue said he rememeber that him and two of his teammates were not in the roster the last minute but he understand that it is a business and he does not want his uncle to get fired.

Darren Stratton was a point guard (PG). “As a basketball player you just have to focus get yourself mentally ready prepared, and prepared for that situation… worried what I can do to become better worried about the game itself how I could mentally get ready for the basketball game ahead. It’s totally different being a coach. Being a coach I got to worry about not only my coaching staff to make sure that we prepared… I have to control each individual on my basketball team to make sure they’re mentally ready  to prepared and also I have to find a way for them to all conexsist… it’s a lot of responsibility on a coach. As a player I took losses hard but not nearly as had as I did as a basketball coach…”Stratton said.

Other than Basketball one thing all three of them have in common is that they all love sports and they are very competitive. “As a family if me and the uncles want to play the nephews and son… we killed each other.. we share a bond,” he said.

“Family is a big bond with us we all love a family he (Matt) comes from a big family Cameron and I we come from a good size family. I have three boys his grandmother and grandfather live with us, so I think family and sport has always brought us together beside basketball. Basketball brought us together and that is a memory that we are going to share for-ever depending how the season goes good or bad that I got a chance to coach both of them…” Stratton said.

Cameron Stratton has been playing basketball for along time and it is something that it influenced him his whole life. Cameron told me he is going to transfer to a four year school and start his coaching career and he is looking forward to get a bachelor’s degree in a division one school. This is his last semester playing basketball for along time and it is something that it influenced him his whole life.

Cameron told me that he is going to transfer to a four year school and start his coaching career and he is looking forward to get a bachelor degree in a division one school. He used to be a nursing major but due to what happen during the coronavirus pandemic he change his major to psychology.

Basketball it all started for Logue when he was in third grade he played AAU with his uncle Coach Stratton coaching him. “When I was in third through fifth grade I played with coach Stratton and the seventh grade through Junior year I played for him”Logue Said.