Flyers Pull Away From Eagles With High Energy Second Half in Conference Opener
The Sandhills Community College basketball team turned a late eight-point first-half deficit into a 30-point lead midway through the second on the way to a 104-77 victory over Oxford College of Emory University on Saturday afternoon at The Hangar.
Kendall Wooldridge, 21 points, Joey McMullin, 20, Chad Kinch, 11 and Chris Hunter, 10, combined to score 62 points off the bench as the No. 2 ranked Flyers won their Region 10 opener and improved to 18-3 overall. The squad from Oxford, GA dropped to 9-7 and 0-1.
The Flyers return to action on Wednesday, hosting Central Carolina CC at 7 p.m. in another Region 10 contest.
"The defensive intensity we displayed in the second half was pretty good stuff and makes me feel good about what we can do in the future," Flyers Coach Mike Apple said afterward. "We didn't shoot the ball particularly well in the first half, but the basket just got bigger for us as the game went on."
The Flyers trailed 18-9 after making only two field goals in the first eight minutes of the game. Later, a flurry of activity by Hunter, that included a steal for two, a pair of free throws and a three-point play in transition, helped close the gap to 31-28. Then in the closing minutes of the half, consecutive threes by Wooldridge and LeNijel Robinson helped the home team take a 42-38 lead into the intermission.
"Chris can be a game-changer defensively because he brings kind of a physical mentality and he's a super athlete," Apple said of Hunter, a sophomore guard. "Today I thought his drives to the basket were very timely."
Tied at 44-44 early in the second half, Bryan Quiller scored 10 of the points, including a pair of dunks, during a defense-generated 12-0 run. A three-point play by Hunter helped keep the spree going. With about nine minutes remaining, Jordan Coleman fed Jamori McDougald for a trey that made it 86-56.
Afterward, Hunter, a Cox Mill High School grad, was asked about the dramatic second-half turnaround.
"We realized when we came in at halftime that we've been down before and we just had to come out, play hard and treat every team like they're the best team in the nation," he said.
McMullin scored 16 points in the second half as the Flyers sank 28 of their 40 shots from the field (70.0 per cent). The defensive leaders in the game were McDougald with five steals and Jaquan Thurman with four. Robinson was the leader in rebounds with eight and in assists with four.
The 21 points by Wooldridge, another product of Cox MIll, were a college career-high. Over his last six games, the 6-foot-4 guard has connected on 27 of his 38 shots from the field and made all 17 of his free throws. The Flyers made all nine of their free throws in the game and are currently 11th in Division III with a percentage of 71.9.
Attending Saturday's game with his father was Michael Collins, a member of the 2012 team that won the national championship in Apple's first year as the head coach of the Flyers. His teammates on that team included current assistant coaches Tramaine Pride, Daquain Towns and Markell Lotharp. He was second on the team with 61 threes that season.
He is currently a Health and Physical Education teacher, and basketball coach at Bunn Middle School.
"I came to see how Daquain, Markell and Tramaine are doing on the assistant coaching side after playing with them," he said. "And to watch Coach Apple and get some tips from him, seeing as how I'm coaching middle school basketball."
Pride remembers Collins as a pure shooter and a high energy player.
"And a funny guy too," Pride said. "It was like his energy was here today."
by Charlie Bergmann
photos by Donna Ford