Focused Flyers Overwhelm Bobcats in Return Engagement
Heading into Sunday's game at The Hangar, it was a good bet the Sandhills Community College basketball team would be determined to turn the tables on a Bryant and Stratton squad that upset them a week ago in Virginia Beach.
"The main focus in practice this week was being unselfish and being more aggressive on defense," the Flyers' Corry Addison said. "And playing hard for the whole 40 minutes."
The sophomore point guard played his part, handing out 10 assists to go with 13 points and a pair of steals as the Flyers held the Bobcats to 19 field goals on the way to an 87-57 victory. The home team improved to 10-2 overall and 8-2 in Region 10 while the visitors fell to 3-4 and 2-4.
The leading scorer for the Flyers was freshman Bryan Quiller with 18 points. Derreco Miller and Savion Staton contributed 16 and 14, respectively.
Coach Mike Apple's squad travels to Jamestown on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. contest against Guilford Tech (5-9, 3-9).
On the first Flyer possession of the game, Addison made a clever pass to Quiller for a dunk. Miller followed with a base line drive for two and a 4-0 lead. Moments later another dunk in transition by Quiller made it 6-4.
A drive for two and then a three by Addison upped the margin to 11-4. The Bobcats rallied to tie the game at 15-15, but the first two of Miller's five dunks for baskets in the game were a part of a surge to a 38-28 lead at the intermission.
"Going up there last Sunday, and getting beat, put kind of a sick feeling in my stomach and the whole team's stomach," Miller said. "We wanted to get our revenge here, really."
The Flyers turned the intensity up another notch at the start of the second half, playing faster. The first points came on threes by Staton and Miller. With 15 minutes remaining in the game, another three by Nasir Johnson completed a 15-4 run that made it 53-32.
Defensively, the Flyers held the Bobcats to just two field goals in the first nine minutes of the second half. With 8:19 remaining, Staton wove his way along the baseline past several defenders for a thunderous dunk and a 68-42 advantage.
"I was real pleased with what we did defensively," Apple said. "I thought we made every possession really hard for them. No. "0" (Jaylin Stewart) did a great job penetrating against us at their place, but we did a really good job of shutting that down and closing out their shooters.
"Offensively we shared the ball and had a good inside-out kind of thing. Rebounding was an issue at their place and I thought we controlled the boards here. We followed the game plan just about to the letter."
Ranked No. 13 in this week's NJCAA Division II poll, the Flyers two losses in Region 10 play have them even with Louisburg College, and Catawba Valley CC in that department, but behind the one loss teams, No. 7 ranked Davidson-Davie CC and Fayetteville Tech.
"Hopefully we can build on everything we did today," Addison said. "And keep the same focus in practice and game after game."
Flyers extra – The presence of family members of the players added to the energy in the building. The Flyers connected on 18 of their 21 free throw attempts in the game. Over the last four they are a combined 89-for-105 which adds up to 84.76 per cent. To put that in perspective, the Los Angeles Clippers lead the NBA this season with a percentage of 84.3. Miller, 14-for-15 and Addison 12-for-13 have led the team over that period. The team's average for the season of 73.3 per cent is the 11th best in Division II.
Bryant and Stratton – Stewart 4 2-6 10, Jordan 2 2-2 7, Knightnor 0 0-0 0, Walker 0 0-0 0, Smith 1 0-0 3, Saunders 6 3-3 15, Morris 4 4-7 14, Oden 2 4-5 8 Totals 19 15-23 57. Sandhills CC – Staton 5 1-1 14, Addison 4 4-4 13, Brayboy 1 0-0 2, Miller 7 2-2 16, Quiller 6 6-7 18, Johnson 3 1-2 9, Yow 1 0-0 2, Thomas 1 0-0 2, Zachary 1 1-1 3, Murr 2 3-4 8, Boyd 0 0-0 0, Murphy 0 0-0 0, Sledge 0 0-0 0 Totals 31 18-21 87. Three-point goals: BSC 4 (Morris 2, Jordan, Smith); SCC 7 (Staton 3, Johnson 2, Murr). Addison).
