No. 1 Ranked Flyers Improve to 6-0 With Victory over Hosanna Bible
The Sandhills Community College basketball team scored the first 15 points of the game against Hosanna Bible College on Tuesday evening at The Hangar and breezed to a 122-36 victory.
The Flyers improved to 6-0 after moving up four spots to No.1 in the NJCAA Division III rankings released on Monday. They return to action on Wednesday at 6 p.m., entertaining a Division II Pitt Community College squad that is off to a 3-0 start.
Bryan Quiller led eight Flyers in double-figures with 16 points as Coach Mike Apple's squad made 53 of its 74 shots from the field (71.6 per cent). Alon Hanani and Jamori McDougald were each credited with nine of the team's season-high 35 assists.
"Hosanna was obviously an undermanned squad we played against tonight," Apple said of the team from Durham that dressed only six players. "The biggest thing you want to do is get everyone playing and you want to play it the right way.
"You want to be respectful of the game and do the things we do. I thought we executed real well offensively. Defensively we had moments we did a pretty good job and other moments when we were lackadaisical."
After Jordan Coleman opened the scoring with a strong move to the basket, Joey McMullin poured in the next 13 points, including three treys to make it 15-0. Averaging 112.5 points per game this season, the Flyers went over the century mark with 9:55 remaining in the game on a steal that Chris Hunter turned into a basket and a 100-27 lead.
McMullin finished with 15 points followed by freshmen forwards Ayden Gittens and Antonio Leslie with season-highs of 13 and 12 points respectively. McDougald added 11 points, and Hanani, Coleman and Kendall Wooldridge chipped in with 10 each.
Seeing his first action upon returning from an injury, Hunter, a sophomore guard, contributed two points, four rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals in a productive 14 minutes of action. Zac Sledge added nine points and eight boards.
The Flyers replaced Genesee CC (NY) in the No. 1 spot in the rankings. The No. 2 through No. 5 places are now occupied by Brookdale CC (N.J.), Dallas Eastfield CC, Montgomery County (PA) and Genesee.
Pitt County is led by 6-foot-4 sophomore forward Avery Huggins who posted a triple-double that included 17 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocked shots in the Bulldogs' season-opener.
"We thought Saturday was a good test of where we were," Apple said, referring to the Flyers' 107-89 victory at Wake Tech. "I think tomorrow will be another good test. Pitt is a very tough team defensively, has good size and really rebounds well. It will be a good check to see exactly where we are."
C. Bergmann