McDougald Pours in 30 in Win Over Roadrunners - Flyers Host First Place Patrick and Henry on Wednesday

The Sandhills Community College basketball team defeated Mountain Gateway Community College 135-100 in a crucial Region 10 conference matchup on Saturday afternoon  at The Hangar.  

The Flyers moved to 4-2 in Region 10 and 14-7 overall with their fifth straight win while the Roadrunners dropped to 2-3 and 9-9.  

The Flyers have a chance to move into a tie for first place in Region 10 on Wednesday, when they host Patrick and Henry Community College (10-5, 5-1) at 6 p.m. The Patriots took the first matchup in November, 79-77.

"These wins build a lot of confidence," said sophomore guard Jamori McDougald who led the Flyers with 30 points, "We started off a little slow, losing to teams we shouldn't, but we're getting things together now, and I feel like we can still get better from here."

"These win streaks build confidence, and build character," said Coach Mike Apple.  "What we're doing is we're setting substitution patterns, so guys are getting comfortable with where they're at. That's big going into the end of the year." 

A strong first half found the Flyers up 62-38 at the break, capped off by a half court buzzer beater by McDougald. The Flyers continued to score at will in the second half, outscoring Mountain Gateway 73-62 en route to a 35 point victory.  

"We stayed with it tonight, we kept playing hard," McDougald said.  "Usually when we go up by a lot we let the other team come back, but we just kept pushing and didn't let our foot off the gas."

"When you're scoring that many points, there's a different feel to worrying about playing defense," said Apple, "We want our defense to match our offense, and we didn't do that in the second half, so that's something to work on."

McDougald also led the Flyers with 10 assists and eight three-pointers. Damien Robinson had another double-double, scoring 12 points and 13 rebounds, while Chad Kinch scored 21 points and dished out seven assists. The Flyers had 12 players score at least seven points, and also connected on a season-high 18 three pointers, while also scoring a season-high 135 points.

"It just felt good tonight," said McDougald, "The basket felt wide open, so I just kept shooting." 

"I wish we would have saved a few of those points for Wednesday night," said Apple, "It'll be a very important game."

T. Ratcliff