Flyers Run Away From Hurricanes in Second Half

The Sandhills Community College and Louisburg College basketball teams both struggled mightily on offense in a first half on Wednesday that saw them combine to miss all 23 of their three-point attempts.

Leading 35-34 early in the second half, Keagan Brayboy sparked a 17-2 Flyer run that helped pave the way to a 97-82 victory at The Hangar. The red-shirt freshman guard finished with a team-high 14 points to go along with five rebounds and six assists.

"I think the guys understand that if we keep the tempo up with as many different weapons as we have we can be pretty efficient offensively and that's what we did in the second half," Coach Mike Apple said afterward. "Louisburg is a good team and they're going to be a force to be reckoned with in the second half of the season."

Ranked No. 11 in this week's NJCAA Division II poll, the Flyers improved to 8-1 overall and 7-1 in Region 10. The Hurricanes dropped to 4-3 and 4-2. Next on the schedule is a 3 p.m. conference game in Virginia Beach on Sunday against Bryant and Stratton College (1-3, 1-3).

Coming off their first loss of the season on Sunday at Davidson-Davie CC, the Flyers faced some early adversity when freshman Bryan Quiller, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, picked up two fouls almost instantly. They took their first lead of the game at 10-8 on a pair of free throws by Derreco Miller.

In the game in place of Quiller, freshman Camron Zachary grabbed one of his seven rebounds in the half and scored to make it 20-12. Later, a drive for two by Savion Staton increased the margin to 10, but 14 first-half points by the Hurricanes' Malik Bryant helped close the gap to 35-30 at the intermission.

"We talked a lot about what he was doing," Apple said of Bryant, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, who is averaging 26 points per game. "The biggest thing we tried to do was really make it hard for him to catch the ball. I think the guys took it as a personal challenge to make him work harder."

Bryant finished with 28 points, but it wasn't nearly enough to keep up with a 62-point Flyer second half.

Picking up the pace, the game-changing run began with a short baseline jumper by Corry Addison followed by a basket in transition by Miller. Brayboy followed with three baskets in a span of less than three minutes and also assisted on a dunk by Staton.

The blistering rally concluded with a steal that Jeremiah Murphy turned into a three-point play and a 52-36 Flyer advantage. With 11:20 remaining, an Addison steal and basket, gave the Flyers their largest lead of the game at 64-46. The closest the visitors got after that was 11 points.

With Quiller limited to 14 minutes of playing time, Zachary and Murphy, both 6-5, and 6-9 Will Boyd were all productive inside.

Zachary finished with six points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Murphy contributed seven points and seven boards. Boyd made all four of his shots from the field to go with three rebounds.

"We've got a lot of guys that can rebound and it's unfortunate Bryan got the quick fouls, but I'm always ready to go," said Zachary, a Southern Alamance High School grad. "Coach gave me the opportunity and I did the best I could out there."

According to Apple, Brayboy, a product of Red Springs High School, knew he would likely be sitting out his first year when he decided to come to Sandhills. The 6-3 guard with an all-around game is averaging 9.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.

"Keegan told me I'll work hard and show you, and he's certainly done that," the coach said. "He has really made the most of his opportunity and I'm proud of him."

Brayboy liked the way his team responded overall to the Davidson loss.

"We weren't focused, really, at the start of the first half, and started out slowly," he said. "Coach gave us a good talking-to at halftime and I guess we came away playing the way we're supposed to play.

"We're known for playing fast and when we speed them up, it gives us a chance to win."

Flyer Extra - The Flyers made 63 per cent of their shots from the field in the second half, including half of their six three-point attempts. Louisburg's two previous losses were to a Division I Brunswick CC team that is 7-0 and to Davidson in overtime. Also on Wednesday, a Davidson team (8-2, 7-1) that shared the No. 1 national ranking in Division II with South Suburban College (IL) this week, lost 97-80 at Fayetteville Tech. Wednesday's win was the Flyer basketball program's first ever against Louisburg. The Hurricane's averaged 30 wins a season from 2010 through 2015 when they defeated the Flyers nine times. 

Louisburg - Sanders 3 0-0 6, White 1 0-0 2, Barrio 4 2-4 10, Harris 5 1-2 11, Bryant 12 4-6 28, Powell 3 1-1 7, Stephens 2 0-0 5, Milton 4 0-0 9, Hooks 0 0-0 0, Cash 1 0-0 3, Campbell 0 0-0 0 Totals 35 8-13 82. Sandhills – Staton 5 0-1 11, Addison 4 0-0 9, Brayboy 7 0-0 14, Miller 4 4-4 12, Quiller 5 0-1 10, Johnson 2 2-2 6, Thomas 4 1-4 9, Zachary 3 0-0 6, Murr 0 0-0 0, Yow 1 0-0 3, McKnight 1 0-0 2, Boyd 4 0-0 8, Murphy 3 1-1 7, Sledge 0 0-0 0 Totals 43 8-13 97. Three-point goals: LC 4 (Stephens, White, Milton, Cash); SCC 3 (Staton, Addison, Yow).

C. Bergmann