Leading by six with just over six minutes left in the game and six minutes away from their first win Tuesday night at home against Pensacola Christian College, the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawk basketball fell to a 9-0 run by the Eagles to lose by seven, 74-67.
The loss drops JDCC to 0-4 this season.
While his team was just a few minutes away from their first win this season, Warhawk head coach Allen Gainer said his team is heading in the right direction.
“We are closer,” Gainer said. “We knew with all these young kids and new players (12 freshmen and two sophomores) that it was going to take some time for us to play at this level and what it was going to take. We still don’t have the intensity that is necessary and we still don’t have the refuse to lose that we still have to get. We are closer. It is right there, we just have to get a little bit more of the oomph.”
JDCC led the Eagles of PCC 36-27 after the first half. A half that saw 6-4 freshmen Adrian Rich score 17 points.
With the lead at nine for the Warhawks at the halftime break, PCC came out firing on all cylinders in the second half as they used a 10-0 run to help take a 39-38 lead with 16:27 left in the game. The run for PCC saw them hit three straight 3-pointers at one point to help take the lead.
JDCC would rally and use a 6-0 lead of their own to take a 52-46 lead with 10:34 left in the game. From there, JDCC held a nine-point lead with 9:08 left in the game—57-48—and led the Eagles by six with 6:09 left to play.
From there, it was all PCC as they went on a 9-0 run to take a 62-59 lead with 3:22 left in the game. JDCC would cut the lead to one, 62-61, with 3:07 left but would never cut closer to five points the rest of the game as PCC claimed the win by seven, 74-67.
Rich led the Warhawks with 21 points, but after his 17 in the first half, only had four in the second half.
“Adrian can be a great player, but he is too good of a kid,” Gainer said. “He is reluctant to be the best player on the floor. He has 17 in the first half and even in the end of the first half we are throwing him the ball trying to feed him and he is passing the ball other people because he does not want to seem selfish. At halftime we talked about it not being selfish if you are doing what the team needs done. In the second half, he was just as reluctant. He has to accept to being the best player on the floor. Hopefully he will.”
Three other Warhawks joined Rich in double figures as Dee Jay Braggs finished with 14 points and Chris Oden had 13. Fletcher Forte finished with 12 points while R.J. Bowers had five. Matt Bass chipped in two points in the loss.
JDCC was 8-for-14 from the free throw line in the loss. JDCC was 6-for-7 from the line in the first half and 2-for-7 in the second half including a 2-for-5 period late in the game.
PCC was 10-for-13 on the night. The Eagles were 3-for-4 from the line in the first half and 7-for-9 in the second.
JDCC had four 3-pointers in the first half and three in the second while PCC had six 3-pointers in the win with four coming in the second half.
JDCC trailed by as many as four points in the first half before using an 8-0 run and a 7-0 run in the half to lead by as many as 11 with 59.1 left in the first half.
Bowers and Oden both led with six rebounds each while Oden led in the loss with seven assists. Bass finished the night with two blocks while Bowers, Oden and Braggs all led with two steals each.
JDCC shot 43.3 percent from the field and was 7-for-26 from the 3-point line. The Warhawks committed 16 turnovers in the loss.
JDCC will be back in action Saturday at home as they welcome Southern Union to Warhawk Gym. Game time is set for 2 p.m. in Brewton.
The Warhawks will play in a Thanksgiving tournament in Tallahassee Wednesday and Thursday.