After an earlier loss to the Bison of Southern Union by a score of 75-51, the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawk basketball team even their record with them Thursday night as they claimed a 79-61 win.
With the win, the Warhawks of JDCC improved to 9-10 overall and to 6-4 in conference play.
“This was a huge win for us tonight,” JDCC head coach Allen Gainer said. “We are battling them (Southern Union), LBW, and Chattahoochee Valley right now for third place and the top-four get a bye in the first round. That really is a good win for us and it allows us to hold on to fourth and compete for third.”
Gainer said the win was kind of like two wins for his team.
“Because with them beating us at their place and if they would have beat us tonight, they would have the tiebreaker head-to-head,” Gainer said. “The win tonight opens things up for us. It was a really big win for us tonight. Brandon Scott did a really great job of finishing the game and I am just really proud of all of them. They did a great job.”
In the game Thursday night in Brewton, Southern Union grabbed the first points of the game in just six seconds to take an early 2-0 lead.
From there, JDCC would go on an 8-0 run to take an 8-2 lead with 16:16 left in the first half.
The Warhawk lead grew to as much as 11 points with 10:24 left to play but Southern Union cut the lead to three points, 31-28, with 4:26 left.
From that point, the Warhawks would end the half on an 11-1 run to take a 13-point lead, 42-29, at the half.
At the half, JDCC had 10 scorers and was 6-for-9 from the free throw line while the Bison were 1-for-3.
In the second half, JDCC started out on a 5-0 run to increase their lead to 18 points, 47-29, at the 18:08 mark.
JDCC would lead by as much as 20 points twice in the half at the 17:00 and 10:11 mark.
Southern Union twice cut the lead to 12 points with 9:21 and 7:18 left, but the Warhawks would go on and outscore Southern Union 37-32 in the half and get the 18-point win.
JDCC shot 9-for-14 from the free throw line in the second half for an overall 15-for-23. The Bison were 6-for-9 in the half for a total of 7-for-12.
Daryl Duncan and Scott led JDCC with 12 points each and Kahlee Tyler had 11. Gabriel Rice rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Warhawks with 10 points.
Sherman Presswood had nine points and Adam Stumpf and Braylon Lazare had eight.
Larel Jackson had three points and Joshua Fealing, Turmonte Ragland, and Malcolm Bell all had two points in the win for the Warhawks.
Lazare was injured in the game and suffered a mild concussion after a hard foul under the goal.
“I would like to express our thanks to the hospital after the game,” Gainer said. “They got us in and out quickly with everyone being very helpful and concerned. Dr. Robinson did a great job as well.”
JDCC will be back in action Monday when they travel to Alabama Southern in Monroeville. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be a conference game for the Warhawks.