Flyers Defeat Cougars for Sixth Victory in a Row
The Sandhills Community College basketball team pulled away from Central Carolina CC with a 21-5 late first half run and made it hold up for an 80-71 victory before an enthusiastic crowd on Wednesday evening at The Hangar.
Trailing the Cougars 24-22, Isaiah Upchurch canned a pair of free throws to start the burst that included 10 points by Antoine Piper and a pair of steals by Nylikk Troutman on the way to a 49-37 lead at the intermission.
The No. 7 ranked in Division III Flyers improved to 19-6 overall with their sixth victory in a row while the DII Cougars dropped to 6-16.
Piper led his team with 20 points, six assists and three steals. Other double figures scorers were Upchurch with 15, Mike Fee with 11 and Zack Noel with 10. Damien Robinson led the home team with 16 rebounds.
Next for Coach Mike Apple's squad are conference road games in Virginia on Saturday at Virginia Peninsula CC (1 p.m.), on Sunday at Camp Community College (1 p.m.) and at Patrick and Henry CC the following Wednesday. Those games will go a long way toward determining the seeding for the Region 10 tournament two weeks later to be held at Patrick and Henry.
"The biggest thing we want to do is play well and play hard," Apple said of the upcoming challenges. "Defensively we've really improved and I think you can hang your hat on how we played defensively this game as the reason we won."
Perhaps buoyed by the presence of members of the Southern Lee High School team he played for a year ago, along with its Head Coach Gaston Collins, Upchurch sank a pair of threes to help the Flyers take an early 13-6 lead.
"I was looking forward to this all week," said Upchurch, who learned his former team would be at the game while in a study hall at Sandhills a few days earlier. "It felt good to have those boys from my home town behind me.
"In the first half we had good ball movement. The second half I think we got comfortable and let them back into it a little bit."
Mike Fee converted a three-point play, and then drove for two more moments later, to give the Flyers their largest lead at 74-59 with six minutes remaining. The closest the visitors came after that was six points at the 1:30 mark before a pair of free throws by Fee all but wrapped things up.
Apple was in his final year as the high school coach at Pinecrest in 2011 when his team defeated Collins' Southern Lee squad 63-61 in the championship game of the Holiday in the Pines Tournament. This year's Cavaliers are currently 18-1 and Collins' team is well on its way to his eighth season of 20 or more wins as their coach.
"That was a memorable Christmas tournament final," Apple recalled after visiting with Collins at the end of the game. "Gaston has been a quality coach for a long time."
Region 10 Standings: Sandhills 4-1 (19-6), Patrick and Henry 4-1 (12-8), Virginia Peninsula 3-2 (12-6), Camp 3-3 (10-10) and Emory Oxford 0-7 (10-13).
C. Bergmann
