Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawk basketball coach Allen Gainer said that when he called a timeout with two minutes left in the game Monday night at home that his team could shutout Enterprise State the remainder of the game.
With his Warhawks trailing 68-64 with 1:36 left in the game, that is exactly what his team did as they ended the game on an 8-0 run to defeat the Weevils by four points 72-68.
The win improved the Warhawks to 10-6 overall and to 4-1 in conference play.
The Warhawks of JDCC trailed 30-29 at the half after surrendering a 4-0 run to Enterprise after leading 29-26 with 1:29 left in the half.
Enterprise started the second half on a 6-0 run to increase their lead to 36-29 with 18:08 left in the game.
A 6-0 run by JDCC allowed the Warhawks to take a 39-38 lead with 13:15 left to play. From there, the teams would battle back in forth until Enterprise turned a 59-57 Warhawk lead into a 64-59 lead of their own with 3:39 left in the game.
With Enterprise leading the Warhawks 68-64 with 1:36 left in the game, JDCC picked up some big play and points from Sherman Presswood.
Presswood would go on a 5-0 run of his own including two key steals to give JDCC a 69-68 lead with 46.6 left in the game.
JDCC would take a 71-68 lead with 18.3 and got the rebound after two missed 3-pointers by Enterprise to ice the game with a free throw to get the win by four points.
“We were not with it mentally in the first half in particular…we were just not focused and not ready to play,” JDCC Warhawk head coach Allen Gainer said. “We just didn’t get things done the way we needed to get them done in the first half. We had too much success with our press in the first half and that made us lazy on defense. In the second half, we tried to slap the ball instead of running our press properly. The main thing is we made the plays that had to be made. Sherman Presswood made a huge play that I think pulled us back within one and that is what I think helped us win the game. He makes that play it was enormous. Everyone started feeding off of that. We are pretty solid on defense when we want to be. I told them when we called a timeout with two minutes to go that we could shut them out the rest of the way if we wanted to and we did. We just have to be more focused and have a lot better effort Thursday against Bishop.”
JDCC had three players finish in double figures in the game with two earning double-doubles.
Brandon Scott finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds in the win while Turmonte Ragland added 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Presswood finished with 10 points and D.J. Jackson and Gabriel Rice both had nine points each.
Larel Jackson chipped in five points and Greg Crum followed with one.
Larel Jackson led the team with four steals and four assists and Rice led with four blocks.
JDCC was 20-for-39 from the free throw line in the win while Enterprise was 12-for-16.
The Warhawks will take on Bishop Thursday in Mobile with game time set for 7 p.m.