By Charlie Bergmann

Special to The Pilot

The Sandhills Flyers overcame a subpar shooting night from the field and defeated the Emory Oxford Eagles 77-70 at The O'Neal School gym Wednesday evening.

Germann Bostic scored a game-high 23 points and shared team honors in rebounds with nine. The Flyers take a 13-4 record into Saturday's 2 p.m. home contest against Vance-Granville.

The Flyers connected on only 32 percent of their shots from the field against the squad from Oxford, Ga., 12 percentage points below their season average. They trailed by as many as nine points in the first half before rallying to within two at 38-36 on a long jumper by Michael Dunkins as time expired in the first half.

That was the last lead the visitors would enjoy. The Flyers' Joe Houpe opened the second half with a three to put his team in front 39-38. The game was tied twice before the home team began to pull away. At the 6:45 mark, Nick Quigley spotted up Hilary McLaurin for a three that made it 65-56.

Each time the Eagles threatened after that the Flyers had an answer. The margin was just three points at 73-70 with 46 seconds remaining when Bostic roared down the lane for a layup.

Oxford, now 5-4, was led in scoring by Gabriel Martin with 18. The Eagles sank 39 percent of their field goal attempts but made only one three to eight for the Flyers. They were a dismal 9-for-22 from the charity stripe compared to 17-for-28 by the Flyers.

Also in double figures for the Flyers were Houpe with 17 and McLaurin with 12. Houpe and McLaurin each grabbed nine rebounds. Corey Rase handed out a team-high seven assists.

Vance-Granville defeated Sandhills 94-83 when the teams met in November.

Oxford 38 32 - 70

Sandhills 36 41 - 77

Oxford - Phillips 5 1-1 11, Okeke 3 0-0 6, Milner 0 0-0 0, Kitchen 4 0-6 8, Anyogu 5 0-0 10, Alexander 3 0-0 7, Martin 6 6-7 18, Aceveco-Gonzalez 0 0-0 0, Bugg 1 1-2 3, Menocal 3 1-6 7. Totals 30 9-22 70. Sandhills - McLaurin 4 2-4 12, Bostic 8 4-4 23, Darr 1 0-1 2, Rase 2 0-0 4, Houpe 5 6-12 17, Rhone 0 0-0 0, Anderson 0 1-2 1, Dunkins 2 3-3 7, Thorne 2 1-2 5, Quigley 2 0-0 5. Totals 26 17-28 77. Three-point goals: (O) 1 (Alexander); (S) 8 (Bostic 3, McLaurin 2, Rase Houpe, Quigley).