Season Ends for Flyers Under a Barrage of Philadelphia Threes
The Sandhills Community College basketball team was defeated 100-96 by Community College of Philadelphia on Thursday in a consolation game of the NJCAA Division III National Championship held in Rockford, IL.
With the Flyers leading 68-59 with 11:50 remaining in the game, the Lions drained five treys during a six-minute stretch to help catch up and move out to an 83-78 advantage.
The tense struggle was knotted up for the 13th and final time at 84-84 with 3:30 remaining on a basket by the Flyers' Bryan Quiller before the Lions opened up a seven-point lead and held on for the win.
The Flyers were led in the scoring department by Joey McMullin with 25 points, Quiller with 24 and Darryl McCaster with 14.
The Lions were 12-for-26 from beyond the arc compared to 1-for-8 for the Flyers. Issac Marshall paced the winners with 26 points. Malik Gibson added 19, including five threes, all in the second-half.
Coach Mike Apple's Region 10 and Mid-Atlantic District championship squad winds up the season with a record of 26-8 while the Region 19 Lions finished at 20-7.
The Flyers bounced back strongly from the offensive struggles they experienced in Wednesday's 77-49 first round loss to Joliet (IL), making 55.1 per cent of their shots from the field.
With the Flyers trailing by as many seven points in the first half, the game was tied seven times before the Lions took a 43-41 lead into the intermission. Early in the second half, the Flyers tied it up at 49-49 on a drive for two by Chris Hunter.
Then two baskets by McCaster, one by Camron Zachary, and 13 Flyer points in a row by McMullin, helped open up the 68-59 lead. That's when Gibson responded with the third of his team's eight second-half threes to begin turning the tide back in the Lion's favor.
A three by Amir Woods gave the Lions a 91-84 advantage with 2:40 remaining. From there, the Flyers closed the gap to three points, three times, on baskets by Jordan Coleman, McMullin and McCaster, but couldn't get the stops needed to catch up.
Thursday's quarterfinal games included No. 8 Rock Valley's 75-60 upset of No. 1 Riverland (MN).
The matchups for Friday's semi-final games are: Rock Valley vs No. 4 Dallas North Lake and No. 6 Dallas-Eastfield vs No. 2 Genesee (NY).
Philadelphia – Wright 1 0-0 2, Woods 4 0-0 9, Faison 5 6-7 16, Marshall 11 2-3 26, Holmes 7 2-2 18, Myers 0 2-2 2, Shepard 1 0-0 2, Gibson 7 0-0 19, McPeak 1 0-0 3, Codada 1 0-0 3 Totals 38 12-14 100. Sandhills – Wooldridge 3 0-0 6, Hunter 2 1-1 5, McCaster 7 0-0 14, Sledge 3 0-2 6, Quiller 11 2-2 24, Perry 0 0-0 0, Hanani 0 0-0 0, Coleman 3 2-2 8, Stoltz 0 0-0 0, McMullin 10 4-4 25, Zachary 2 0-0 4, Nelson 2 0-0 4 Totals 43 9-11 96. Three-point goals: PH 12 (Gibson 5, Marshall 2, Holmes 2, McPeak, Codada, Woods); SCC 1 (McMullin).
C. Bergmann