No. 1 Ranked Flyers Continue Preparations for New Season

The Sandhills Community College basketball team went into Wednesday's scrimmage against Blue Lights College as the No. 1 ranked team in Division III, according to the NJCAA preseason poll released earlier in the week.

The Flyers jumped out to a 28-7 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game against the team from Apex and rolled to a 105-64 victory at The Hangar.

Joey McMullin led Coach Mike Apple's squad with 14 points. The Orange High School grad also grabbed nine rebounds to share team honors with fellow-freshman Kendall Wooldridge.

The Flyers complete preseason play at the Brunswick CC Jamboree on Saturday, starting at noon. The regular season gets underway with a game at Lenoir CC in Kinston on Saturday, November 3.

"We're thrilled to have the opportunity to be the No. 1 team in the nation," Apple said afterward. "It's a remarkable achievement and we're proud of it certainly, but we have a long way to go to really represent and be the No. 1 team."

There was no Division III national championship held last season because of COVID considerations. The Flyers were ranked No.1 in the final regular season poll in 2020 before going on to win the national championship in Rochester, MN.

Last season's team moved up to Division II where it was ranked No. 6 in the final poll before finishing in sixth place at the national tournament held in Danville, IL.

The Flyers have six returnees from last season's team, including Camron Zachary who combined with freshmen teammates Sam Stoltz and Alon Hanani for three treys in a row that gave their team a 53-25 lead at the intermission.

In all, 17 players saw action for the Flyers. Other double-figure scorers were returnees Nasir Johnson with 12 points, and Zachary and Zac Sledge with 10 each. The assist leaders were Wooldridge with five, and Johnson and Stoltz with four apiece.

"The first thing is that we got to play a lot of guys," Apple said. "We had an opportunity to do some things offensively we had not had an opportunity to do before which was nice.

"We also identified a lot of mistakes defensively and hopefully we're going to correct them, starting tomorrow."

The remainder of the teams listed in the preseason poll are: 2. Mohawk Valley (NY), 3. Richland College (TX), 4. Rochester C & T (MN), 5. Herkimer College (NY), 6. Eastfield (TX), 7. Hostos CC (NY), 8. Montgomery County (PA), 9. Riverland CC (MN) and 10. St. Cloud Tech (MN).

C. Bergmann