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Davidson County vs. SCC - 2/9/11

Davidson County avenged a home loss to Sandhills Community College earlier this season by beating the Flyers in Southern Pines 96-87. Photos by Donna Ford.

The Sandhills Flyers were defeated 96-87 by Davidson County Community College Wednesday night in a battle between the eighth- and fifth-ranked Div. III junior college teams in the nation.

A more than capacity crowd filled The O’Neal School’s Tate Gym a half hour before the game. It watched the lead change hands eight times, leading up to a jumper by Raheem Jolliffe that gave the Flyers a 42-38 halftime lead.

“Our fans were great, and their fans were great,” Davidson coach Matt Ridge said. “It was a neat atmosphere that everyone involved with the game will remember for a long time.”

The Storm began the second half with an 8-2 run, taking a 46-44 lead on a three by Kimani Hunt. After Johnny Elliott scored for the Flyers to tie the game at 46-46, the visitors used an 11-3 burst to go ahead for good.

With Deon Boyce working inside to score 19 of his 28 points in the second half, the Storm took their biggest lead at 71-55 with 11 minutes remaining in the game.

“He’s an excellent player, and first of all, I give him credit,” Flyer coach Aaron Denton said of the 6-foot-6 Boyce. “We have to give a better team defensive effort. They had some easy buckets in transition, and a lot of them came from us not finishing at the offensive end. We didn’t finish, and it was off to the races.”

A comeback bid by the Flyers included a three by Dre Huntley that cut the deficit to 79-73 with 5:16 remaining. Moments later, Huntley fed Phillip Moultrie for a dunk in transition that made it 79-76. The wild sequence continued with Hunt and the Flyers’ Clay Thorne trading threes in rapid succession.

After three empty offensive possessions by the Flyers, the Storm sewed up their win at the foul line.

Elliott, 16, Daquain Towns, 12, and Thorne and Markell Lotharp, with 10 apiece, were double-figure scorers for the Flyers.

Ridge was asked what he thought the difference was between this game and the one two weeks ago, when the Flyers defeated his team 109-94 in Lexington.

“Sandhills absolutely whipped us at our place. No excuses, but we were not at full strength,” he said. “There’s a very good chance we could see them again in the regional finals.”

The Flyers and the Storm are now tied for first place in the Region 10 conference. With wins over Wytheville at home on Sunday (1 p.m. start) and at Central Carolina next Thursday, the Flyers would finish in no worse than a tie for first.

“It was a great college basketball game tonight and a lot of fun,” Denton said. “I’m disappointed to lose, but I was extremely proud of our kids.”

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