2025 Donald Beasley Men's Basketball Mixer Recap
On November 1 and 2, CCBC Dundalk Lions Men's Basketball opened the 2025-26 season in customary fashion with its weekend Mixer. Two days. Six teams. Six games.
For the past three years, the Mixer has been named for Donald Beasley. Coach Beasley mentored the Lions from 1992-2000, and his team won the 2000 NJCAA Division II Men's Basketball National Championship. Greate White, current Administrator of Athletics at CCBC Dundalk, as well as a member of that 2000 championship team remembers Coach Beasley as "a fair coach, and an encouraging mentor, who consistently gave back to the community."
The bleachers were full, and the fans were vocal as Pitt Community College (Winterville, N.C.) opened the Mixer against Harford Community College (Bel Air, Md.) The Harford Fighting Owls topped the Pitt Bulldogs 89-66.
In Game Two, The Raritan Valley Community College Lions (Branchburg, N.J.) defeated the Montgomery College Raptors (Rockville, Md.) 102-83.
Your CCBC Dundalk Lions kicked off the season playing the third game of the Donald Beasley Mixer hosted at CCBC Dundalk on Saturday, November 1st. The Lions failed to win the first game of the season against Bryant and Stratton (VA) Bobcats 77-72.
The first half score did not have any real run of play where either team broke away from each other as the game was tied multiple times with the last being 31-31. Dundalk broke away at the end of the half thanks to Richard Hall Jr who scored 4 points, assisted another basket and grabbed 5 rebounds en route to 41-33 Lions lead.
In the second half the Lions were able to get their lead up to 13, just five minutes in 52-39. Five more minutes pass and the lead holds at 13, 62-49 with 9:58 remaining in the game. The Lions were outscored 28-10 over the remainder of the game. Nas'Zaire Simmons fouling out with 5:37 remaining was a massive blow as Simmons was 6-8 shooting, 3-4 from three, for 15 points.
Cristian Viafara was the Lions leading scorer with 17
Richard Hall Jr finished the game with 10 rebounds, 9 points, 3 assists, a steal and a block
Day Two opened with a Montgomery College win over Pitt 86-80.
One point made the difference in the mid-card event as Harford went over Bryant and Stratton, 76-75 in overtime.
The final game of the CCBC Dundalk Don Beasley Mixer ended in a heartbreaking loss as the Lions of CCBC Dundalk fell 85-75 in an overtime defeat to the Lions of Raritan Valley.
The Lions largest lead of the game (8) came off of Larry Thompson recording a steal in the front court and converting the easy layup. RV came back down and scored a layup of their own to make it 23-17 to which RV's head coach uttered "We were down 8?!"
Before you know it the game was tied at 23-23 and both Lions teams were back to trading baskets. Victor Ezeh was heating up, hitting back to back threes tying the game at 28-28 and then giving CCBC the lead 31-28 before heading into half with Dundalk up 36-32.
Ezeh was CCBC's leading scorer with 11 points heading into half.
CCBC Dundalk were able to hold that lead from halftime all the way until the bitter end. With two minutes remaining in the game Juan Turner would hit a massive three pointer off of Nas'Zaire Simmons assist to extend CCBC's lead to seven 71-64. RV would score three layups unanswered to make it a 71-70 game in which CCBC leads and subsequently calls a timeout. Out of the timeout Ezeh was able to get a tip-in off a missed layup. With 20 seconds remaining RV is able to hit a three and tie the game at 73-73 and for the first time in the second half the Lions do not have the lead. Dundalk would throw the ball out of bounds on the inbounds after the made three. Gonzalez would get another chance at a three for RV after just tying the game but was no good so with seconds remaining Simmons had a layup opportunity but did not convert. To OT the game goes tied at 73-73.
In overtime Dundalk could not get going. Going 0-7 from the field is not a recipe for success. Committing 6 fouls gave RV the chance to go 8-11 at the line while CCBC was just 2-2 on their lone foul.
Larry Thompson led the Lions with 18 points and 3 steals
Ezeh finished with 17 points and 6 rebounds
Richard Hall Jr filled up the stat sheet and was just shy of a double-double again; Scoring 9 points, grabbing 13 rebounds, led the team with 6 assists, all while getting 3 blocks and 2 steals
The Lions are on the road looking for their first win on Thursday November 6 as they travel to Mercer College (West Windsor, N.J.). The Lions' next home game is Wednesday November 12, as we host the Harrisburg Area Community College.