Flyers Grab District Title and National Tournament Berth in Convincing Fashion

A steal and a basket by LeNijel Robinson produced the first points of the game and the Sandhills Community College basketball team was off to the races against Butler County CC in Saturday afternoon's Mid-Atlantic District Championship game at The Hangar.

The No. 1 ranked in NJCAA Division III Flyers never trailed and built as much as a 28-point lead on the way to a surprisingly one-sided 114-91 victory over the No. 7 ranked Pioneers from Pennsylvania.

Coach Mike Apple's squad (28-3) extended its winning streak to 16 games while snapping the Pioneers' (20-4) streak at 10.

The Flyers shared the ball to the tune of a season-high 37 assists. The main beneficiaries were forwards Joey McMullin, 22 points, Bryan Quiller, 20, Zac Sledge, 18 and Jaquan Thurman, 16. The four were a combined 34-for-45 on shots from the field (75.6 per cent).

The victory automatically qualifies the Flyers for the NJCAA DIII National Championship to be held at Herkimer College in Herkimer, NY on March 15-18 and makes a strong case for them to receive the No. 1 seed.

In addition to the eight bids awarded to district champions, four at-large teams will be selected to make up the 12-team field. The tournament bracket will be announced during a Wednesday at 2 p.m. broadcast by the NJCAA Network that will be screened in the Game Room at the Dempsey Student Center.

Flyers Sharp From the Start

Even during the winning streak, Apple watched his team get off to some slow starts and lack consistency, but not this time.

"Given our recent track record of not coming out ready to play, this was a most-needed kind of game for us," he said afterward. "We needed to set the tone early and we certainly did that. I was just so impressed with our defensive stuff and we did a good job of playing inside-out. Our perimeter guys made some clutch shots that broke the game open. I'm just so pleased with how we played."

Before another large crowd that included six members of the Flyers' 2012 national championship team, Robinson's opening basket was followed by three inside by Thurman, and then a steal and a dunk by Quiller, making it 10-2.

Point guards Jamori McDougald and Chris Hunter, pushed the ball up the court at every opportunity.  McMullin came off the bench and scored the first four of his 12 first-half points off assists by Hunter.  Later, threes by Hunter and Sam Stoltz helped expand the lead to 53-36 at the intermission.

"Right from the tip-off you could tell they had an urgency about them," said T.J. Gill, an alum of the 2012 team and now an assistant coach at Methodist. "Coach Apple and the rest of the staff had them ready. They're very selfless."

Pioneers Undone in Second Half by Flyers' Speed and Depth

Three of the eight members of the Pioneers' squad played the entire 20 minutes of the first half.

"We talked about how we wanted to get the ball down the court before they could set up their defense and that worked to our advantage," McDougald said. "The way we play basketball you need a full team. You need more than eight guys to run with us."

Sledge erupted to score 10 points during a five-minute span to help increase the lead to 82-59 with 11 minutes remaining in the game. A basket in transition by McDougald gave the Flyers their largest lead of 94-66 at the eight-minute mark.

"We played fast and Jamori did a great job setting the tempo," Apple said. "He was a jet getting up and down the floor. Joey was "Joey Buckets" like he usually is. Bryan Quiller was amazing in what he does, but Zac Sledge off the bench made timely basket after timely basket in the second half to completely shut the door on Butler."

Sledge made all eight of his shots from the field and both free throws, and has scored 19, 18 and 18 points in his last three games. Sharing most of the playmaking duties, McDougald and Hunter combined for 15 points, 10 assists and just one turnover. Kendall Wooldridge recorded a team-high seven assists and Jordan Coleman chipped in with six.

Derrick Anderson led the Pioneers with 31 points. Jason Baker, who led the nation in blocked shots, turned away three to go with 20 points and 11 rebounds. The Flyer non-starters outscored their Pioneer counterparts 60 to 0.

Flyers Head North With Something to Prove

"We want to prove a point this year," McMullin said, recalling last season when the Flyers lost both of their national tournament games. "That started today and we're going to show everybody this is not the same team as last year. 

In addition to Flyers assistant coaches Daquain Towns, Tramaine Pride and Markell Lotharp, and Gill, the other members of the 2012 team in attendance were Raheem Jolliffe and Louis Craft. The latter two went on to play professional basketball in Romania. Among the other alums on hand were Sayaun Dent and Nathan Yow, who got to help cut down the net as members of the 2020 national championship team. Dent was also the 2020 National Player of the Year.  And Camron Zachary who appeared in the 2021 and 2022 tournaments.

"They play together almost exactly how we did," Dent said of the current Flyers. "It was good to see how they play together, for each other and with a lot of energy."

Many in the crowd remained to watch the Flyers cut down the nets.  Afterward Apple reflected on the state of the basketball program.

"The nicest thing that was told to me today was that Sandhills doesn't have a great team it has a great program," he said. "The reason Sandhills has a great program is because of all these guys that continue to walk back in the door and give advice to these younger fellows and show love to them. It's just a lot of fun."

C. Bergmann