Flyers Entertain Titans to Tip-off a New Season in a New Conference

The Sandhills Community College basketball team begins the long-delayed start of the 2020-21 season tonight with a 7 pm tip-off at The Hangar against Guilford Tech.

Due to COVID-19 protocols, spectators will not be allowed, but the game will be live streamed.

As a result of a ruling by the NJCAA to not hold Division III national championships this season in basketball or volleyball, the Sandhills teams in those sports have accepted the option of moving up to Division II. That makes the opener against the Titans the first of 18 Region X games in a nine-team conference that includes long-time Division III rival Davidson County CC. 

The Flyers wrapped up the preseason with an 84-67 loss to Division I Cape Fear CC in Wilmington on Saturday. Guilford Tech dropped a 110-85 decision to a Central Carolina CC squad that also moved up to Division II in its regular season opener on Friday.

"We're really, really ready to play a game," Flyers' Coach Mike Apple says, looking back to a preseason that began in the early fall. "I feel tremendously proud of what we accomplished last year. However with the pandemic, we're focused on what can happen this year."

Four players, including Derreco Miller, Savion Staton, Corry Addison, and Nathan Yow return from last year's squad that compiled a record of 34-2 and won the NJCAA Division III National Championship in March in Rochester, MN.

Miller, a 6-5 forward and Staton, a 6-2 wing, were named to the all tournament team. Addison, a 5-11 point guard, recorded 10 assists and just one turnover in the championship game. Yow, a 6-0 guard, was among the leaders on the team last season in three-point baskets made, assists and free-throw percentage.

Staton (9.8 ppg) and Addison (9.5 ppg) are the leading scorers among the returnees.

"Derreco is very versatile, a good passer and improved in every facet of the game," Apple says. "We are looking to Savion and Corry for stability and leadership. Nathan was a valuable back-up to Corry last year."

Will Boyd, a 6-9 forward, Keagan Brayboy, a 6-3 guard, and Ahmad McKnight, a 6-5 forward, red-shirted last year. Boyd scored 19 points in a November scrimmage against Fayetteville Tech. Later Brayboy showed promise with a 17 point, five rebound, six assists and three steals effort against the St. Andrews B team.

Among the freshmen standing out in the preseason were 6-5 Bryan Quiller (Cary High School) and 6-0 Dharyus Thomas (Southwest Onslow).

Quiller led the team with a 17.0 scoring average during the four November scrimmages, including a double-double. Thomas was 7-for-8 from the field, including four treys and scored 20 points in a victory over Catawba Valley.

The other first-year players on the Flyers' 13-man roster include 6-5 Cameron Zachary (Southern Alamance), 6-4 Jonah Murr (Grace Christian), 6-4 Jeremiah Murphy (Queens Grant) and 6-9 Zac Sledge (Southwest Edgecombe).

"If we had a most improved award, it would probably go to Zac Sledge, especially since the Christmas break," Apple says.

Apple, the 2019-20 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) NJCAA Coach of the Year, has compiled a record in nine years at Sandhills of 232-65, including two national titles. He is holding out hope that fans will be able to return to the Hangar sooner rather than later.

"We'd love to get parents back on a limited basis because we feel it's just as much their experience going on here as the student athletes'," he says. "And we've got faithful fans, and we certainly want to get them back in the gym as soon as it is safe to do so."

The Flyers were 5-0 against Division II, Region X teams a year ago. First-year Flyer assisant coaches Tramaine Pride and Daquain Towns remember the battles against Davidson County when they were members of 2012 national championship squad.

The Storm won both regular season games that season, but the Flyers beat them in the Region X tournament. Davidson and Louisburg both qualified for the 2020 NJCAA Division II national tournament that was canceled because of COVID-19. 

"This is my first year so I'm excited," says Pride who was a member of the coaching staff at Pfeiffer University a year ago. "Competitively I'm chomping at the bit to rekindle some of those old rivalries. Now Coach Towns and I get to experience it from the other side."

C. Bergmann