In a basketball game between two teams on a roll, Sandhills Community College was defeated 121-99 by Louisburg College at The O’Neal School Monday night.

The six-game winning streak of the Div. III Flyers (11-3) came to an end while the 14th-ranked in Div. II Hurricanes (11-1) won their eighth in a row. Western Harnett product Johnny Elliot led the home team with 24 points. Jeremy Atkinson and Duke Dorsey each poured in 23 for the Hurricanes.

“This is the best team we’ll face all year,” said Flyer coach Aaron Denton, who was 24-7 at Louisburg in the 2007-2008 season before becoming the coach and athletic director at Sandhills. “We had this game circled because Louisburg plays like some of the teams in our conference.

“I’m disappointed with the score, but at the same time it’s a great measuring stick for us.”

Pinecrest graduate Phillip Moultrie scored the first five Flyer points on the way to a 20-point night. A drive by Elliot for two gave the home team its biggest lead of the game at 7-2. It led for the final time at 15-14 on a basket by Joe Houpe.

The Hurricanes were leading 24-23 at the midway point of the half when they seized control with a 13-2 run. They used a combination of transition baskets, threes and second chance points to take a 54-45 advantage into the halftime intermission.

The visitors scored the first 11 points of the second half and maintained a lead of at least 14 points the rest of the way.

“They had about two spurts that hurt us, one in each half,” forward Clay Thorne, a second-year player from Bunn, said. “Other than that I thought we played pretty even with them. We’re playing pretty good this year against some good competition.”

The Flyers were never able to make more than two baskets in a row in the second half. One of the rally killers was quick Hurricane scores after a Flyer basket.

“I think honestly, and this is on me, we have to get better at defending the basketball, especially in transition after a made basket,” Denton said. “I’m not happy we got exposed, but we’re going to use it to the good.”

Houpe scored 12 points and grabbed a dozen rebounds. Other double figure scorers for the Flyers were Raheem Jolliffe with 12 points and Pinecrest alum Daquain Towns with 10.

Towns also had a game-high five steals. Thorne had 10 rebounds to go with six points. Dre Huntley led the Flyers with five assists.

Louisburg had a big edge in three-point baskets (11-5), points off turnovers (20-10), second chance points (22-11) and field goal percent (50.5 to 40.5).

The Flyers complete the pre-holiday portion of their schedule with a game at Catawba Valley on Thursday.

Contact Charlie Bergmann at cbergmann@nc.rr.com.

Louisburg 54 67 121

Sandhills 45 54 99

Louisburg — Smith 3 3-4 11, Dorsey 9 3-4 23, Atkinson 9 5-6 23, Thompson 7 1-3 15, Davidson 6 1-2 13, Young 2 1-1 5, Davis 5 0-0 14, Chavis 3 2-2 9, Rogers 0 0-0 0, Brooks 3 0-0 8. Totals 47 16-22 121. Sandhills — Jolliffe 4 3-4 12, Moultrie 9 2-4 20, Thorne 2 2-2 6, Elliot 8 6-6 24, Ewing 3 1-2 7, Houpe 3 5-9 12, Towns 3 4-6 10, Collins 1 1-2 3, Huntley 0 2-3 2, Cole 1 0-0 3. Totals 34 26-38 99. Three-point goals: (L) 11 (Davis 4, Smith 2, Dorsey 2, Brooks 2, Chavis); (S) 5 (Elliot 2, Jolliffe, Cole, Houpe).