Focused Flyers Rack Up Win No. 20
On the first possession of Saturday's basketball game at The Hangar, Winston Bryan and Elijah Idlett of Sandhills Community College both dove to the floor, scrambling for a loose ball at the Emory Oxford end of the court.
That set the tone for an all-out effort that was maintained for 40 minutes and resulted in a 116-70 Region X victory over the team from outside Atlanta on Hall of Fame Day. Coach Mike Apple's No. 2 ranked squad in the nation this week improved to 20-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference while the Eagles dropped to 9-10 and 1-3.
"It was a pretty basketball game for a coach to watch," Apple said afterward. "I think we took three charges in the first half and we moved the ball unselfishly the entire game. Near the end we got three-point happy, but everything was going in.
"When we commit to playing defense like we did in two out of the three games this week, coupled with the tempo that we're able to keep up, we're hard to beat."
Savion Staton came off the bench to score 11 points in a row midway through the first half and led the Flyers with 19 points. The Eagle's Shane McCravy, who came into the game ranked fifth in the nation in scoring at 27.5 points per game, was held to four points in the first half and 20 overall.
With Bryan getting the primary defensive assignment, the Eagles' star did not get his first touch until the fifth minute. But with 11:30 remaining in the half, a basket by Jack Polzin, who erupted for 18 first-half points, cut an early Flyer lead to 17-15.
Staton assisted on a basket by Cameron Williams to set off an 18-4 run. The first of the 6-2 freshman's 11 Flyers' points in a row began with a spectacular tip-in. Two treys in a row followed by an old fashioned three-point play added up to a 30-19 lead at the 8:50 mark.
Moments later, Idlett took his team's third charge of the half and followed that with a steal and five points in a row to complete the game-breaking run.
With the Flyers leading 53-34 at the intermission, McCravy, now with three fouls, scored 12 points during the first eight minutes of the second half, but the Eagles were unable to make a dent in their deficit.
The basic plan for defending McCravy was to make it difficult for him to catch the ball.
"Coach Apple said that he was top five in the country so I took that as a personal challenge," Bryan said. "I made up my mind he wasn't going to get his average tonight and I don't think he did."
The Flyers rained threes on their opponent over the final 12 minutes of the game. Nathan Yow (3), Zion Bailey (3), Staton and Niem Ratliffe accounted for eight over that period on a combined 10 attempts.
"Everybody was locked in at practice yesterday," Bryan said. "Everybody was locked in at the shoot-around. Everybody was locked in all week."
A pair of home games this week starts off with a 7 p.m. date with Mount Zion Prep on Thursday followed by a 3 p.m. game against Combine Academy of Lincolnton on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Freshman Corry Addison, the Flyer assists leader handed out a season-high nine. Yow accounted for all of his season-high 12 points on threes and Bailey scored a season-high 11 points.
A product of Pinecrest High School, and the brother of sophomore Jamaan Bailey, who leads St. Andrews with 47 threes, Zion is a combined 6-for-6 from behind the arc in the last two games, seeing primarily late game action.
"I love the fact that he's a gym rat," Apple says. "We try to recruit guys like that who are going to work hard on their game. He's works with the shooting machine and he's putting in the time in the weight room. You can see the fruits of his labor when he's out on the floor."
The Flyers reached the 20-win plateau for the ninth time in the last 10 years. Also on Saturday, No. 1 ranked Eastfield (21-4) was upset by Region V conference member North Lake (12-13), 101-95.
Oxford Emory – Polzin 10 5-6 28, Gerber 2 2-2 7, McCravy 8 4-5 20, Varela 2 3-5 7, Powell 4 0-0 8, Simons 0 0-0 0, Perlicki 0 0-0 0, Collette 0 0-0 0, Tang 0 0-0 0 Totals 26 14-18 70. Sandhills – Idlett 7 1-2 15, Dent 5 4-4 14, Miller 4 2-2 10, Bryan 2 0-0 4, Addison 2 0-0 4, Yow 4 0-0 12, Davis 1 2-3 4, Williams 1 0-0 2, Staton 7 2-3 19, Richardson 3 2-2 9, Medins 1 0-0 2, Allmond 3 1-4 7, Bailey 4 0-0 11, Ratliffe 1 0-0 3 Totals 45 14-20 116. Three-point goals: OX 4 (Polzin 3, Garber); SCC 12 (Yow 4, Bailey 3, Staton 3, Richardson, Ratliff).
C. Bergmann
Photo by Donna Ford