The Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawk basketball team picked up their second straight win and their second straight conference win Thursday night at home as they defeated the LBW Saints by 15 points, 74-59.
In a close first half, JDCC led the Saints by two points at the halftime break, 32-30, before outscoring LBW by 13 points in the second half, 42-29, to get the win.
While his team is now 8-5 overall and 2-0 in conference play, Warhawk head coach Allen Gainer was not happy following the win Thursday.
“It is a win, but it disappointing,” JDCC head coach Allen Gainer said. “We didn’t give a good effort. Loose balls and we don’t try and go and get them…we just didn’t play hard. It is just a disappointing win, but it is a win that is what matters.”
Gainer said after a big conference win over Alabama Southern Monday, his team may have had a letdown after the win.
“I think we did maybe have a little bit of a let down after beating Alabama Southern, but LBW played very hard,” he said. “There is an intense rivalry between our schools and they were more up for it than us this time.”
JDCC scored first in the game to take an early 2-0 lead at the 19:09 mark of the game, but would then fall to an 8-0 run from the Saints of Andalusia to trail 8-2 with 16:37 left in the first half.
JDCC would then go on a 6-0 run of their own to tie the game at 8-8 with 15:05 left in the first quarter.
At the 11-minute mark of the game with LBW leading 16-15, JDCC would go on another 6-0 run to take a 21-16 lead with 9:56 left to play.
The two conference rivals would fight back-and-forth in the final minutes as the game was tied at 28-all with 2:31 left and 30-all with 43.6 seconds left before the halftime break.
Adam Stumpf would get a tip-in rebound with 5.6 seconds left in the half to give the Warhawks a two-point lead at the half, 32-30.
In the second half, the two teams would go back-and-forth again until the Warhawks took a six-point lead, 49-43, with 11:43 left in the game.
LBW would cut the lead to two points at 49-47 with 10:58 left to play, but from that point on, the Warhawks would go on a 9-0 run to hold a 58-47 lead with 7:53 left in the game.
The closest the Saints would come to the JDCC lead was nine points the remainder of the game as the Warhawks would lead by 14 points, 69-55, with 3:15 left and go on and win by 15 points as Greg Crum would end the game on an alley-oop dunk.
JDCC was 10-for-21 from the free throw line in the win while LBW was 5-for-8. The Warhawks shot 4-for-9 in the first half and was 6-for-12 in the second including 4-for-8 in the final 3:15 of the game.
LBW was 1-for-3 in the first half and 4-for-5 in the second.
Brandon Scott led the Warhawks in scoring in the win with 22 points. Of his 22 points, 16 came in the second half.
Turmonte Ragland added 19 points for the Warhawks with 13 coming in the first half. Ragland is currently No. 11 in NJCAA in steals per game.
Also in double figures for the Warhawks was Crum with 11 second half points and Larel Jackson with 10 points.
R.J. Bowers added four points in the win while D.J. Jackson, Derell Washington, Stumpf and Rodney Scott all had two points each for the Warhawks.
Larel Jackson added nine assists to lead the team and Ragland led with nine rebounds, one block and five steals. Stumpf also had one block in the win.
For LBW, Mycheal Bester had 22 points, Tabrie Gibson had 12 and John Groover nine.
Chris Bell added six points and Marcus Leonard and Myles Whitehurst had five each.
JDCC will be back in action Tuesday at Wallace Selma. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.
Following a Thursday game at Chattahoochee Valley in Phenix City, JDCC will be back in action Monday, Jan. 23 at home against Enterprise. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
All games will be conference games for the Warhawks.