By Christina Easter
Cuyahoga Community College’s Men’s Basketball team finished tied third in the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference after bouncing back to win seven of their last thirteen games. The team competed through the suspension of head coach Aaron Nixon and assistant coach Sherri Gilmore and the loss of scoring guard Chase Abraham with three games left in the season.
Freshman John McFadden was selected to the All OCCAC first team and sophomore guard Tyson Garner was named to the second team. Garner averaged 17.2 points per game and McFadden averaged 16.5 points during the season.
After the suspensions, assistant coach Arika Jones stepped in to lead the team. Jones has been assistant coach for the Tops since Tri-C resumed sports after the pandemic.
The reason for the suspensions appear to be unrelated to the Tops Feb. 14 game against the Terra State Titans as neither team was assessed a technical foul. However, during the last game of the Top’s season on February 28, play-by-play announcer Jaren Viancourt noted inactive players and coaches for the game.
“Abraham is not playing for the rest of the season after what happened against Terra State,” said Viancourt. “Along with coach Nixon and Sherri Gilmore. That’s why Arika Jones is at the helm, here in charge at today’s game.”
Tri-C Manager of Public Relations Anthony Moujaes told The Voice, “Tri-C is aware of an incident involving the men’s basketball coach and has begun an investigation into the situation and will not be commenting while the investigation is ongoing.”
Even with the suspensions, Nixon and Jones’s mark on the Triceratops was evident during the season. Ultimately, the players showed that they bought into the coaching style and philosophy to turn what started out looking like it would be the first losing season of Nixon’s career at Tri-C.
“After Nixon stepped, we continued to practice hard and went over the things we needed to go over,” said Jones adding “but it did take some time for the guys to adjust to it being just me and me being more vocal.”
The team finished 11-5 in the conference and 16-11 overall. On the offensive side, they led the OCCAC in three-point field goals made per game (10.4) and overall (9.3). They finished second in assists (18.0) and offensive rebounds (13.3) per game. On the defensive side, they finished second in blocks (3.7) and fourth in steals (8.8).
McFadden had previously earned OCCAC Player of the Week for Feb. 9-15 after averaging 26 points, 9.0 rebound, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. Against the Bryant & Stratton Bobcats he had 27 points, 12 rebounds and 6 steals and against the Terra State Titans he had 25 points, six rebounds, four blocks, and three assists.
Freshman guard Chase Abraham earned OCCAC Player of the Week honors for the week of January 12 in which he averaged 27 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, had four steals, two blocks and had an 11-to-5 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Leading Tri-C men’s basketball team was not new for Jones. She won coach of the year honors in her first year as head coach for Shaw High School where she coached for two seasons before joining the Tops.
“I am not new to head coaching,” Jones said. “In Nixon’s absence, I understand what needed to be done. Nixon wants us to keep pushing and fighting to get the job done and that’s what we did.”
As the saying goes, we will see what happens next season.
Click here for more information about Tri-C men’s basketball or to watch select games, visit https://athletics.tri-c.edu/sports/mbkb/2025-26/schedule.
