The Sandhills Flyers got off to a stumbling start in Thursday’s basketball game against Region X rival Davidson County Community College at the O’Neal School gym.

A 20-point deficit near the end of the first half was too big a hill to climb as the No. 5 in Division III ranked Storm saddled the home team with an 81-65 loss. Once ranked No. 2 in the nation, the Flyers dropped to 0-2 in the conference and 15-5 overall after their fourth loss in the last five games.

The Storm improved to 17-1. Coach Mike Apple’s Flyers will try to regroup for Sunday’s league contest at home against Wytheville (Va.).

The Flyers fell behind 16-7 after committing a half-dozen turnovers in the first five minutes of the game. It was 41-21 with just under three minutes left in the half when the Storm went ice cold and the Flyers began clawing their way back into it.

The rally began with a basket by Dre Huntley. Over the next eight minutes, extending into the second half, the Storm did not score a field goal. A jumper at the 15:00 mark by Daquain Towns made it 42-33.

At the mid-point of the second half, a long three by the Flyers’ Markell Lotharp cut the margin to 51-47. The home team had several chances to get closer before the visitors pulled away with a 10-2 run and maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

Lotharp finished with 14 points and Towns had 12 to go with 10 rebounds for a Flyer team that made only 29 percent of its shots from the field and committed 21 turnovers. The Storm turned the ball over 29 times while making 42.2 percent of its field goal attempts. Maurice Nash led five Storm players in double figures with 15 points.