Flyers Take Down Lancers for Eighth Win in a Row

Led by sophomore Zach Riddle with a season-high 24 points, the Sandhills Community College basketball team pulled away from visiting Lenoir CC in the closing minutes for a 100-90 victory on Wednesday evening at The Hangar.

Before another large and enthusiastic crowd, the Flyers improved to 18-6 with their eighth win in a row while the Division II Lancers dropped to 11-8.  Coach Mike Apple's squad travels to Banner Elk on Saturday for an 11 a.m. contest against the Lees McRae junior varsity. 

"Winning breeds winning,"  Apple said afterward, "We've been on a little winning streak and I think the guys want to keep it going."

Riddle poured in 18 points in a back and forth first half as the Flyers took a 42-40 lead into the intermission. The second half remained even until the Flyers were able to pull away down the stretch.

"Lenoir had a good game plan," said Apple, "When we finally got them to run some man-to-man, we did a really good job running our offense and getting good looks.

This was the 13th ranked in NJCAA DIII Flyers third straight win by 10 points or less and the fourth such game during the winning streak.

"I didn't think we were really ready to play when the game started," the coach said.  "If we would take care of business earlier in the games, we would definitely have a lot easier time of it."

A product of Cox Mill High School, Riddle connected on 11 of his 13 shots from the field to go along with nine rebounds. Sophomore Ayden Gittens scored 22 points and also grabbed nine rebounds for the Flyers while sophomore Jamori McDougald contributed 20 points.  Freshman Jashaun Torrence added 11 points and hit three three-pointers.

"J" (Torrence) was a big contributor off the bench tonight," Apple said.  "He hit big shots in the first half and the second half.  Consistency is hard sometimes, but he did that tonight and really helped us win the game."

 The Flyers have two remaining home games in the regular season, including a Region 10 contest on Sunday at 1 p.m. against Oxford Emory.  

T. Ratcliff