With a No. 3 seed and a first round bye on the line Thursday night, the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawk basketball had a huge second half en route to a 66-56 win over Chattahoochee Valley.
The Warhawks trailed by as much as six points in the first half and trailed 34-30 at the half.
In the second half, JDCC used a 5-0 run to take a 37-36 lead with 17:11 left in the game.
After seeing Chatt-Valley claim a 38-37 lead with 17:03 left JDCC took the lead for good at 39-38 with 16:13 and never trailed again.
The Warhawks built their biggest lead of the game with 13 points with 1:07 left to play and outscored the Pirates by 14 in the second half 36-22 to get the win by 10.
“Well, this is obviously a huge leap in the right direction for us,” JDCC head coach Allen Gainer said. “All these guys, with the exception of one, are able to come back next year so this is a huge step forward. We have all these recruits in here tonight to see us play and all of them are wanting to play with us now. To see an exciting win like that makes people want to be part of your program so this is really a great step forward. Not having to play Saturday gives us an opportunity to get prepared for whoever we will have in the first round and it makes the planning of the trip so much easier. We could not have done it without the assistance of the baseball and softball teams once again cheering for us and the brought us drinks and cupcakes. We just really appreciate all that they have done for us.”
Gainer said he and his team talked about before the game that they have prepared the whole season to have the opportunity for greatness and tonight was the opportunity to show if we were in the limelight and they stepped up and met the challenge. “Chattahoochee Valley, I thought, kind of gave up with three minutes to go and the game was still in doubt,” Gainer said. “We had a 10-point lead and they missed a shot and we rebounded it and we held the ball and they quit and folded under the pressure. We were able to stand the pressure and to get the win was incredible.”
JDCC was 2-for-9 from the free throw line in the first half and 9-for-15 in the second for a combined 11-for-24 while Chatt-Valley was 1-for-3 in the first and 5-for-10 in the second for a combined 6-for-13.
Braylon Lazare led JDCC in scoring with 22 points. Turmonte Ragland followed with 11 points and Gabriel Rice had 10.
Sherman Presswood had seven points and Brandon Scott chipped in five. Larel Jackson had four points and Daryl Duncan had three.
Adam Stumpf and Kahlee Tyler had two points each. Ragland had a double-double with 10 rebounds.
With the win, JDCC will now compete in the Alabama Community College Conference tournament in Tuscaloosa at Shelton State.
JDCC will be the No. 3 seed and will play at 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, against the winner of Marion and Northwest Shoals.
With a win, JDCC will play Gadsden State at 3 p.m. March 3.