{"id":32796,"date":"2026-03-05T11:13:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:35:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:35:50","slug":"knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Knights Make History with #1 Seed at National Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Haverhill, MA (March 4, 2026) \u2013 The NJCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Committee has announced Northern Essex Community College as the number one overall seed for the national tournament set to get underway on Wednesday, March 11th, on the campus of Herkimer College in Herkimer, NY.<\/p>\n<p>This accomplishment is historic as it is the first time a NECC team has been seeded and\/or ranked first nationally in any sport. With the top seed, NECC will receive an opening round bye and play their first game on Thursday, March 12th at 2:00 pm against the winner of Wednesday\u2019s game between eighth-seeded Northampton and ninth-seeded Genesee. <a href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Stratton-Net-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-29834 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Stratton-Net-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"head coach darren straton stands on ladder, cutting part of the net from the basket\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Knights are coming off a thrilling Region 21\/East District championship game victory over Quincy College, in which Alex Johnson (Worcester) hit the game-winning basket with 3.8 seconds remaining. The Knights will enter the national tournament with an overall record of 30-3 and as winners of 16 straight games. The team hasn&#8217;t lost since December 13th.<\/p>\n<p>Heading into the national tournament, the Knights are led by Alejandro Delgado (Haverhill), who averages a double-double of 18.1 points and 12 rebounds per game, while Johnson and Christian Sanders (Boston) are both scoring in double digits with 12.6 and 12.1 points per game, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>In the backcourt, Yuno Matsuda (Tokyo, JP) and Joan Vidal (Lawrence) are both averaging four assists per game.<\/p>\n<p>The Knights will enter the national tournament scoring 89.3 points per game, which ranks seventh nationally. Defensively, NECC ranks third nationally, forcing the opponent into 18.3 turnovers per game.<\/p>\n<p>A win in Thursday\u2019s quarterfinal would send NECC into the national semi-finals on Friday night with the national championship game scheduled for Saturday at 5:00 pm. Full tournament seeding and schedule are below.<\/p>\n<p><strong>National Tournament Seeding:<\/strong><br \/>\n#1 Northern Essex<br \/>\n#2 Riverland<br \/>\n#3 Dallas-North Lake<br \/>\n#4 Salem<br \/>\n#5 Dallas-Eastfield<br \/>\n#6 Montgomery County<br \/>\n#7 Dutchess<br \/>\n#8 Northampton<br \/>\n#9 Genesee<br \/>\n#10 Dallas-Richland<br \/>\n#11 Ridgewater<br \/>\n#12 Joliet<\/p>\n<p><strong>Opening Round Games Wednesday, March 11<\/strong><br \/>\nGame 1: 12:00pm #8 Northampton vs. #9 Genesee<br \/>\nGame 2: 2:00pm #5 Dallas-Eastfield vs. #12 Joliet<br \/>\nGame 3: 4:00pm #7 Dutchess vs. #10 Dallas-Richland<br \/>\nGame 4: 6:00pm #6 Montgomery County vs. #11 Ridgewater<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quarterfinal Round Thursday, March 12<\/strong><br \/>\nGame 5: 10:00 am Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2<br \/>\nGame 6: 12:00 pm Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4<br \/>\nGame 7: 2:00 pm #1 Northern Essex vs. Northampton\/Genesee Winner<br \/>\nGame 8: 4:00 pm #4 Salem vs. Dallas-Eastfield\/Joliet Winner<br \/>\nGame 9: 6:00 pm #2 Riverland vs. Dutchess\/Dallas-Richland Winner<br \/>\nGame 10: 8:00 pm #3 Dallas-North Lake vs. Montgomery\/Ridgewater Winner<\/p>\n<p><strong>Semi-Finals Friday, March 13<\/strong><br \/>\nGame 11: 12:00 pm Loser of Game 7 vs. Loser of Game 8<br \/>\nGame 12: 2:00 pm Loser of Game 9 vs. Loser of Game 10<br \/>\nGame 13: 5:00 pm Winner of Game 7 vs. Winner of Game 8<br \/>\nGame 14: 7:00 pm Winner of Game 8 vs. Winner of Game 9<\/p>\n<p><strong>Saturday March 14th<\/strong><br \/>\nGame 15: 12:00 pm &#8211; 5th Place Game (W11 vs. W12)<br \/>\nGame 16: 2:00 pm 3rd Place Game (L13 vs. L14)<br \/>\nGame 17: 5:00 pm Championship Game (W13 vs. W14)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Haverhill, MA (March 4, 2026) \u2013 The NJCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Committee has announced Northern Essex Community College as the number one overall seed for the national tournament set to get [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":32780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[681,757,758],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","category-students-alumni","category-headline"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Knights Make History with #1 Seed at National Tournament - NECC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The NJCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Committee has announced Northern Essex Community College as the number one overall seed for the national tournament.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Knights Make History with #1 Seed at National Tournament - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The NJCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Committee has announced Northern Essex Community College as the number one overall seed for the national tournament.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-05T16:13:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-19T18:35:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Stratton-Net-scaled-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1922\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mbouse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mbouse\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/\",\"name\":\"Knights Make History with #1 Seed at National Tournament - NECC News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Stratton-Net-scaled-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-05T16:13:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-19T18:35:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/b067809b6ac2476027bcd15cea07449b\"},\"description\":\"The NJCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Committee has announced Northern Essex Community College as the number one overall seed for the national tournament.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Stratton-Net-scaled-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Stratton-Net-scaled-1.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1922},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/home\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Knights Make History with #1 Seed at National Tournament\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"name\":\"NECC News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/b067809b6ac2476027bcd15cea07449b\",\"name\":\"mbouse\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9bc5063d1d57b90679530f25125157606b6c761a74463fd22130b67b9567bc5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9bc5063d1d57b90679530f25125157606b6c761a74463fd22130b67b9567bc5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"mbouse\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/mbouse\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Knights Make History with #1 Seed at National Tournament - NECC News","description":"The NJCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Committee has announced Northern Essex Community College as the number one overall seed for the national tournament.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Knights Make History with #1 Seed at National Tournament - NECC News","og_description":"The NJCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Committee has announced Northern Essex Community College as the number one overall seed for the national tournament.","og_url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/","og_site_name":"NECC News","article_published_time":"2026-03-05T16:13:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-19T18:35:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1922,"url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Stratton-Net-scaled-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"mbouse","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"mbouse","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/","name":"Knights Make History with #1 Seed at National Tournament - NECC News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Stratton-Net-scaled-1.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-05T16:13:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-19T18:35:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/b067809b6ac2476027bcd15cea07449b"},"description":"The NJCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Committee has announced Northern Essex Community College as the number one overall seed for the national tournament.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Stratton-Net-scaled-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Stratton-Net-scaled-1.jpg","width":2560,"height":1922},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/05\/knights-make-history-with-1-seed-at-national-tournament\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/home\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Knights Make History with #1 Seed at National Tournament"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/","name":"NECC News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/b067809b6ac2476027bcd15cea07449b","name":"mbouse","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9bc5063d1d57b90679530f25125157606b6c761a74463fd22130b67b9567bc5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9bc5063d1d57b90679530f25125157606b6c761a74463fd22130b67b9567bc5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"mbouse"},"url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/mbouse\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32796"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34555,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32796\/revisions\/34555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}