The Flyers wouldn't have had the opportunity to play for a national championship without the heroics of Daquain Towns in the first round game against Brookdale. With 3.8 seconds left in that game, Towns pulled a Danny Ainge, going coast-to-coast to score the game-winning basket. Click here to see Towns whirlwind dash to victory.

UPDATED 6:15 a.m.

With a convincing 101-86 win over Cedar Valley (Texas), the Sandhills Community College Flyers claimed the NJCAA Division III national championship Saturday night.

The Flyers fashioned a dramatic path to the title, winning their first two games of the tournament at Sullivan Community College in upstate New York by a total of two points.

Former Pinecrest Patriot star Daquain Towns was named the tournament's most valuable player. Towns hit a coast-to-coast buzzer-beating basket to give the Flyers a one-point win in the first round and scored the team's final two points in the semifinals.

SCC'S Markell Lotharp was also named all-tournament and first-year coach Mike Apple took the coaching honor.

The Flyers, in just their fourth year of existence, became the first team from North Carolina to pick up an NJCAA national championship in basketball. They finished the season 30-6, winning their last 11 games and 15 of 16.

A championship celebration will be held at 12:15 p.m., Wednesday, March 21 at the Dempsey Student Center on the campus of Sandhills Community College. The public is invited.

Sandhills led by 26 points in the second half. The Suns trimmed the margin to 91-82 in the final minutes but Raheem Jolliffe buried a three-pointer to push the margin back to double digits.

The Flyers tossed the script from the first two games when inconsistent play and foul problems led to nail-biters. As the school's President Dr. John Dempsey saw it, the Flyers gave the Suns "40 minutes of hell" just like the Nolan Richardson-led Arkansas teams of old.

 "We talked about getting a good start, keep pushing and don't let up," said Lotharp, who was one of those limited by foul difficulties in the previous two games. "Cover their shooters, rebound and run, the thing we do best."

 Trailing by up to five points in the early going, a three-point play by Louis Craft and then putbacks on consecutive possessions by Tramaine Pride gave the Flyers a 27-23 lead. The margin was 34-32 at the six-minute mark of the half when the Flyers put together one of their most impressive runs of the season.

 A jumper for two, and a three by Michael Collins, sandwiching a basket in transition by Towns, kicked off the 17-0 run. A three-point play by Pride completed it, making the score 51-32.

 Unlike Friday's game against Bronx CC when foul trouble plagued the Flyers from start to finish, they went 11 minutes against the Suns before committing their first one. On the bench for the Suns was star guard Jade Allen with three.

 A three by Jolliffe at the buzzer gave the Flyers a 54-37 lead at the intermission. Eleven Flyers were already in the scoring column. Guarded by Towns much of the time, Sun star Bakari Turner had 14 points on his way to 37, but Apple wasn't as concerned as you might think.

 "The thing that was encouraging was that he had more attempts than points (16)," the coach  said. "He might have had 50 if we weren't doing what we were doing."

 Turner scored 16 points in the first eight minutes of the second half, but the Suns could only make a dent in their deficit.

 "I tried my best to stop him, but he's a great player" said Towns, who tried to stay step for step with a player that moved relentlessly without the ball.

 Dre Huntley, who doled out 12 assists in the game, led another surge that gave the Flyers their biggest lead at 87-61 with just under seven minutes remaining in the game.

 But Turner went to town again, leading a kind of scary 21-4 Sun binge that made it 91-82 at the 1:36 mark before the clutch three by Jolliffe helped restore order.

 "Basically, they were on a little run and we just wanted to calm down," said Jolliffe, who also made another basket during the Sun rally. "Coach said to run the clock down and take open shots and that's what I did."

A pair of free throws by Chris Vinson put the Flyers over the century mark in the closing seconds. Towns finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists on a night plenty of energy was expended chasing Turner.

 Jolliffe with 15 and Lotharp with 12 were also in double figures. The Flyer bigs, Craft and Erick Ewing, combined to score 17 points, grab 16 rebounds and increased their blocked shot total for the three games to 21.

 After the presentation of the individual and teams awards, and the nets were cut down, Apple talked about the "perfect storm" that made a national championship possible.

 "Coach Denton (Apple succeeded Aaron, the SCC athletic director) had really left some good players this year," he said. "I think they bought in and understood what we were trying to do with them. They didn't always like what we wanted them to do, but they could always see the treasure at the end of the rainbow."

 Against a Texas team that prided itself on its own ability to run, the Flyers, notwithstanding the late Sun challenge, won the race by a wide margin.

 "Obviously to win a national championship, you're going to have to get some breaks," Apple said. "We caught some in the first two games. Tonight we were incredible in the first half offensively. Defensively we were really good the whole game."

Sandhills       54    47  —  101

Cedar  Valley   37    49  —    86

Sandhills: Collins 2 0-0 5, Towns 6 6-7 18, Cole 1 0-0 3, Craft 3 3-5 9, Lotharp 5 0-0 12, Gill 0 2-2 2, Jolliffe 5 2-4 15, Huntley 3 2-4 8, Vinson 0 2-2 2, Washington 1 0-0 2, Jones 3 1-4 8, Pride 4 1-3 9, Ewing 3 2-2 8, Morrison 0 0-0 0. Totals 36 21-33 101.