Flyers Knock Off the Storm in OT for Region X Tournament Title - District VII Tournament Next

The final chapter of one of the fiercest rivalries in all of junior college basketball ended Sunday afternoon when Sandhills Community College defeated Davidson County CC 112-106 in overtime in the Region X Tournament Championship Game held at Wake Tech.

Unshaken by the loss of an eight-point lead in the final 2:30 of regulation, and without the services of three key players down the stretch, the Flyers made big play after big play to earn the right to advance to the District VII tournament next Friday and Saturday at Montgomery College in Rockville, Md.

Chase Morrissette-Barnett emerged from a recent scoring drought to lead the Flyers with 29 points. Tavarus Peterson added 17, and the point-guard tandem of Donnie Haith and Casey Clarkson poured in 15 each. Shane Garrison was also in double figures with 10.

Brandon Rothrock made seven threes on the way to 30 points for a Storm team that will move from Division III to Division II next season.

Although the Storm holds an edge in regular season contests, the Flyers are 3-1 against them in Region X title games, and 5-2 overall, including semi-final matchups, during Coach Mike Apple's seven years at Sandhills. The Flyers won the national championship in his first year in 2012.

"That was a good team we played against and it's nice to win the last one," Apple said afterwards. "It has been a heck of a rivalry and it's kind of a sad thing it had to come to end. We're going to hopefully find another rival and make this happen again."

The Storm (22-7) defeated the Flyers by six and 17 points in their previous two regular season meetings. And as in Saturday's semi-final win over Central Carolina CC, the Flyers got off to slow start. They fell behind 8-0 after turning the ball over on three of their first four possessions.

Morrissette-Barnett still thinks about last year when he went scoreless as his Butler High School team lost for the only time of the season in the 4A state championship game.

"I had to redeem myself and make sure I didn't do that again," he said. "And I didn't play up to par the last time we played Davidson."

The 6-foot-3 guard got his team on the board with a put-back and then a basket in transition. When Garrison took a pass from Malik McCrimmon and scored a few minutes later, the game was tied for the first of 15 times in the half at 12-12.

The two teams were never more than four points apart after that in a half that ended with the Flyers up 44-40 behind 16 points from Morrissette-Barnett.  But with just under 13 minutes remaining in the game, a basket by Mason Harrell, and pair of free throws by Peterson, gave them their largest lead at 64-51.

As the Storm mounted a rally, the Flyers lost in succession their two all-conference players, and top scorers, in Parrish Stevons (illness) and Mason Harrell (fouls), plus Clarkson (foot injury).

Led by Rothrock, the Storm scored eight points in a row to tie the game at 92-92 with 1:01 remaining. He then made one of two free throws to put them ahead 93-92 with 46 ticks left on the clock.

A clutch jumper from the side by Garrison put the Flyers back in front before Rothrock, the third most accurate free throw shooter in Division III, went 1-for-2 again at the line to tie the game at 94-94. Both teams missed shots for the win before the end of regulation.

"Usually when a team is up late in games, and loses the lead, it's hard to recover," Apple said. "We had all kinds of adversity losing Mason, Parrish and Casey."

Haith drained a three to begin the extra five minutes. With the game tied at 97-97, Juwaan Childs made a second chance basket and Morrissette-Barnett drove for two as the Flyers went in front for good. The 18-point extra period included a base line drive for a dunk by Luke Moore and a three by Morrissette-Barnett.

A back-breaking play for the Storm came when trailing by four points with 31 seconds remaining. Moore missed two free throws before racing to the left corner to corral the rebound. That led to Peterson making three of four from the charity stripe in the closing seconds to complete the scoring.

"We knew they were going to fight back when we got the lead," Moore said. "It feels good to beat them after we lost to them in the tournament last year."

Apple was impressed with the resiliency and perseverance of his players individually and as a team throughout the tournament.

"Instead of holding his head down, Luke gets his own miss," Apple said. "That was a big play in the game. I thought our defense was really good for most of the game. "

Haith played on successful teams throughout his career at Pinecrest High School, but came up short of winning a conference championship until now.

"We just found a way to win," he said. "This is a big accomplishment that we will never forget all our lives. We want to win it all in 2018 like they did in 2012."

Garrison went 5-for-6 at the free throw line during one stretch in the second half and hit the late jumper that put the Flyers back into the lead in the final seconds of regulation.

"This was about proving to everybody we could do this," he said. "We just weren't ready to stop playing with each other yet."

Now it's on to the Washington, DC area for the Flyers and their followers. Montgomery County (23-7) earned the right to host the district tournament by defeating Prince George's CC 73-65 for the District 20 title. Prince George's (16-13) as the runner-up, and District 17 champion Southern Crescent Tech of Georgia (14-11), also join the Flyers in the four team field. The game times and Friday matchups are still to be determined.

Davidson – Rothrock 8 7-9 30, Hill 2 1-2 5, Wright 5 3-7 13, Jones 5 6-10 16, Pierce 4 8-10 16, Perdue 8 2-2 19, Blakeney 0 0-0 0, Kelsey 1 0-0 3, McBride 0 0-0 0, Turner 0 0-0 0, Dowling 2 0-0 4 Totals 35 27-40 106. Sandhills – Stevons 1 1-2 3, Harrell 3 0-1 6, Haith 6 0-0 15, Morrissette-Barnett 11 5-6 29, Garrison 2 6-10 10, Clarkson 6 1-2 15, Sexton 1 0-0 2, McCrimmon 1 0-0 2, McFadden 0 0-0 0, Peterson 4 9-11 17, Moore 2 1-4 6, Childs 2 3-5 7 Totals 39 26-41 112. Three-point goals: DCCC 9 (Rothrock 7, Perdue, Kelsey); SCC 8 (Haith 3, Morrissette-Barnett 2, Clarkson 2, Moore).

by Charlie Bergmann

photo by Donna Ford