Flyers Nipped by Titans - Entertain Wake Tech in Saturday's Home Opener
The Sandhills Community College basketball team was defeated 83-80 by Guilford Tech in Jamestown on Wednesday evening.
Trailing by eight points with 4:26 remaining in the game, the Flyers rallied to take an 80-77 lead at the 1:42 mark before the Titans ran off the final six points of the contest.
Ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA DIII preseason poll, Coach Mike Apple's squad takes a 2-1 record into Saturday's 3 p.m. home opener against a DI Wake Tech team that took a 3-0 record into Thursday's game at Louisburg College. The Titans improved to 2-1.
Veteran's Day will be celebrated at The Hangar on Saturday with giveaways and prizes.
"It's going to be a real nice home-opener," Apple said.
Trailing 7-0 after the first three minutes of Wednesday's game, it was an uphill fight for the Flyers most of the way. The Titans took their largest lead at 19-10 before the Flyers rallied to move ahead 23-21 on a three-point play by Jamori McDougald with 8:10 remaining before the intermission.
Behind 40-36 at halftime, the Flyers went on to take a 49-46 lead on a three by Chad Kinch with 15 minutes remaining. The game was knotted up five times after that, leading up to an 8-0 run that gave the Titans a 76-68 advantage at the 4:26 mark.
Then a basket by Ayden Gittens, a three-point play in transition by McDougald, and five points in a row by Kinch put the Flyers in front 78-76 with 2:05 remaining. Moments later another basket by Gittens made it 80-77 before the home team closed out the scoring with its decisive final run.
"I didn't think we were ready to play and Guilford jumped on us," Apple said. "When you give a team confidence they become a really tough team. Credit to Guilford, they did a great job rebounding the ball and played with poise."
Gittens recorded his third 20-point game in a row and has connected on 29 of his 45 shots from the field (64 per cent) over that period. McDougald added 18 points and five assists. Freshman Damien Robinson contributed 13 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double in a row. Kinch scored 11 points, including three treys. Gittens and Robinson each blocked four shots.
C. Bergmann