Robinson Sparks Comeback in Flyers' Season-opening Win over the Statesmen

A dunk by Damien Robinson with 14 seconds remaining, capped a late second half rally as the Sandhills Community College basketball team opened the season with an 80-78 home victory over Richard Bland College on Friday evening.

Trailing 64-52 with eight minutes remaining in the game, Coach Mike Apple's squad took its first lead of the second half at 72-70 on a three-point play by Robinson. A pair of free throws by Robinson made it 78-75 at the 58-second mark, but the Statesmen tied it with a three.

Moments later, following a turnover by the visitors, Robinson scored the winning basket and then grabbed the miss of a potential game-tying shot at the other end. The 6-foot-6 sophomore and Region 10 Freshman of the Year last season, finished the game with a team-high 27 points and a dozen rebounds.

The product of Overhills High School was 10-for-11 on shots from the field and 6-for-7 from the charity stripe. He also blocked six shots.  Other leading scorers for the home team were Freshmen Kendall Smith with nine points and Mylon Campbell, Antoine Piper and Isaiah Upchurch with eight each.  Andy Ramirez poured in 30 points for the visitors.

"We're a very inexperienced squad and you're going to make mistakes and it was a mistake-filled game," Apple said afterward. "However, we gave ourselves a chance to win with our intensity in the last five minutes. Damien really came to play and helped save us early and helped us late."

Richard Bland is a DI team from South Prince George, VA. The Flyers came into the opener ranked No. 7 in the NJCAA DIII pre-season poll. They return to action next Wednesday at 7 p.m., hosting Guilford Tech.

The Flyers have six players that saw action for the team that finished 24-11 a year ago and qualified for the national tournament for the sixth season in a row. In addition to Robinson, the others are guards Mike Fee, Tre' Williams and Demyron Williams, and forwards Titus Cunningham, and Xavion White.

Among the newcomers contributing to the Flyers' cause were Kevin Gentry with a team-high four assists and Smith, Diamante Shephard, Zack Noel and Antoine Piper with three apiece.  Smith, Campbell and Upchurch each knocked down a pair of threes.

Apple heads into his 14th campaign with a record of 333-95 as the coach of the Flyers, including national titles in 2012 and 2020. Assistant coaches Tramaine Pride, Daquain Towns and Markell Lotharp were all members of the 2012 title team.

C. Bergmann