The Sun Chiefs men's basketball team celebrated an unprecedented win to end the regular season en route to a Final Four birth in the NJCAA District Championship.
The team punctuated a 17-5 regular season on April 2 by besting undefeated Shelton State 81-74 at Robertson Arena in Bay Minette. The Bucs entered the contest ranked No. 4 nationally, and became the first Top-5 opponent beaten in Sun Chiefs history. Shelton State would go on to not only win the district championship, but made it all the way to the Sweet Sixteen of the national tournament.
"It was a great win for our program," Sun Chiefs Coach Robby Robertson said of the April 2 victory. "Our guys were ready, and after a 2-0 start, we never gave up the lead."
Melvin Baker led the Sun Chiefs with 23 points and 13 rebounds, complimented by Adarius Oliver's 22-point, 10-rebound effort off the bench.
The team's motivation is always to "win it all," Robertson said, but for the season finale extra motivation came from a defeat earlier in the week in Tuscaloosa when Coastal Alabama Community College lost its one road game against Shelton State, 93-71. During the pandemic-affected season, each team played home-and-away, inter-conference games.
The bus was silent on the ride home following the March 30 defeat at Shelton State, Robertson said, because "that one hurt." The players responded three days later with a legacy win for Robertson, son of legendary Sun Chiefs Coach Jack Robertson, for whom the team's home arena is named.
The elder Robertson, who never beat a Top-5 team in his 43 years on the sideline, has attended each one of his son's games since passing the whistle after his 2018 retirement. And the victory over No. 4 Shelton State led to a warm exchange between the two.
"He was really excited, and at the end I was able to give him a little ribbing that I got one over on him," Robby Robertson said. "I'll never be able to catch all his records so it was a neat moment."
The Sun Chiefs entered the district tournament as a 4 seed, and knocked off Lawson State 92-84 in the quarterfinal before falling to Wallace-Selma in the semis.
For Robertson, the strong finish to such a challenging season will have lasting positive effects on the program.
"We have a good program and we're building every day," he said. "It validated where we are and with a few pieces here and there we'll close the gap even more, get over that hump and get to cut the nets down."