Quiller Leads the Way in Home Win Over S4G

A three from the top of the key by Bryan Quiller opened the scoring for Sandhills Community College in Tuesday evening's basketball game against Shooting4Greatness Academy at The Hangar.

The 6-foot-5 forward went on to combine with Joey McMullin to pour in a total of 28 first-half points and the Flyers rolled on from there to a 101-76 victory over the squad from Raleigh.

Quiller connected on 14 of his 16 shots from the field and tied his Flyers career-high by finishing with 29 points to go along with a game-high 11 rebounds. McMullin was an efficient 7-for-8 on shots from the field and poured in 18 points.

Ranked No. 3 in NJCAA Division III this week, Coach Mike Apple's squad improved to 11-2 with one game remaining before the holiday break at 6 p.m. on Thursday against Division II Pitt CC (6-3) in Greenville, NC. The Flyers defeated the Bulldogs 122-113 at home on November 16.

In a bit of a scoring slump of late, Quiller, who earned All-Region 10 honors in his first two seasons with the Flyers (including a Covid season), scored six Flyers' points in a row on dunks off assists by Jaquan Thurman, Kendall Wooldridge and Alon Hanani, making the score 32-18 with 9:20 remaining in the first half.

"We were just getting the ball into the post and making plays," the product of Cary High School said afterward. "Especially now that school is out, we don't have any stress or tension. It just makes coming out here easier, and when you get into the flow, the buckets come easier."

A three by Jamori McDougald, and then another dunk by Quiller, assisted by McDougald, gave the Flyers their largest lead at 67-33 about five minutes into the second half.  Quiller played sparingly after that with his productive outing accomplished in just 22 minutes on the court.

"The only thing that held Bryan back tonight from getting 30-35 points was Coach Apple not playing him a whole lot," said Apple after spreading the minutes around in a one-sided game. "He's been struggling lately with his shot. I think he kind of took a deep breath today, saw some go in early, and that gave him all of the confidence in the world."

Other double-figure scorers for the winners were McDougald with 13 and Antonio Leslie with 10.  McDougald and Chris Hunter were each credited with five assists to share the lead that in that category. Jayden Michael led S4G with 26 points.

There is already a buzz in the air about the 3 p.m. game on New Years Day against undefeated Davidson-Davie CC that will be broadcast by ESPN Plus from The Hangar (further information to follow).

"I'm excited about Pitt on Thursday," Quiller said. "We've got to go down there and handle business, come back from the break, practice hard, and get ready for Davidson and ESPN."

C. Bergmann