College basketball: Free throws assure victory for No. 16 SCC
It took a little more than a half to find some space, then No. 16 Southeastern Community College's men's basketball team got back on the winning path.
The Blackhawks toppled Lake Land, 79-60, in the first day of the Broadway Classic at Loren Walker Arena Friday night. Lincoln Trail defeated Des Moines Area Community College, 65-58, in the first game.
SCC managed just a 32-30 edge at halftime, and it was 32-all early in the second half, but the Blackhawks then marched to victory. The Lakers played a zone defense against SCC.
"I think there are going to be a lot more zones played against us," SCC coach Lorenzo Watkins said. "I'm happy with our guys' performance after coming back from that good, old-fashioned, behind-the-shed butt whipping we got on Tuesday (in an 81-56 loss at Mineral Area). Mineral Area is a great team and played zone against us for 40 minutes."
Neither team Friday had impressive shot percentages. The Lakers sank 23 of 61 shots from the field for just 37.7 percent, but that was better than the Blackhawks'. SCC needed 63 shots to make 23 for 36.5 percent.
But SCC took advantage of 22 Lake Land fouls. The Blackhawks sank 26 of their 33 free throws to Lake Land's 8-for-10.
"It didn't shock me that Lake Land was going to come out and play a lot of zone against us," Watkins said. "Our guys were stagnant. That's how the game started on the road down at Mineral Area.
"Our defense has to continue to create activity for us on offense," Watkins said. "I think sometimes we try to press, press, press and score too fast against a zone and you've just got to be patient. I think they've got to understand that we have to get the ball side to side, get it inside to Jesiah (West) and Railer (Vargas-Hernandez) and Nariq (Chisholm) and put pressure on the basket. So we've got a long ways to go. I think we're going to see more and more zone played against us. It just is what it is right now."
SCC's defense forced 26 Lake Land turnovers.
"I think our full-court press really kind of opened it up for us," Watkins said. "We got about six or seven turnovers in a row for baskets. I told our guys we've got to defend. We've got to defend to give us opportunities to stay in the game, to give us the opportunity to be able to win games."
West led everyone on the floor with 21 points and 16 rebounds. Davion Bailey finished with 16 points and four assists. Koby Isaac had 15 points, including three 3-pointers, and Bruce Carpenter came off the SCC bench to score 11 points.
Leroy Walker led Lake Land with 16 points.
Lake Land led at 7-6 and 18-17 in the first half. SCC went up 32-25, but the Lakers scored the last five points of the first half.
SCC scored 11 of the first 15 points of the second half and was never seriously threatened again. A 13-point run put SCC up 63-42 with 6:42 left to play. In the next minute and 13 seconds, West scored on a baseline drive, stole the ball and scored a layup, then added a free throw to give SCC its biggest lead of the night at 68-44.
Tuesday, Mineral Area ended SCC's undefeated string at eight games.
"Mineral Area was the first time we've given up over 70 points," Watkins said. "I didn't count the win over William Penn (junior varsity) because it was 100-85. You can't play games like that. We want to keep teams under 70 points to give us an opportunity to win. When you don't play defense, you have no opportunity to win games."
Mineral Area is located south of St. Louis and the Blackhawks traveled the day before the game. Sometimes that helps and sometimes it doesn't.
"It's a long trip," Watkins said. "Sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad (to travel a day early). What happens is you get up, you get down there and then you have all day. You're just laying around and you get lackadaisical or lethargic. Sometimes it helps to get the guys down there, but you still have to be mentally tough to come out there and be better on the road than to get down 19-3 and 20-3."
LAKE LAND (60)
Amar Kuljuhovic 1-6 2-2 4, Dailliss Cox 3-6 0-0 6, Leroy Walker 6-18 2-2 16, Anthony Scales 1-5 0-0 2, Everett Stubblefield 5-12 0-2 12, Malachi Davis 4-7 2-2 11, Johnny Close0-0 0-0 0, Arnado Camacho 1-4 0-0 3, Evan Wermert 0-0 0-0 0, Anthony Neal 0-0 0-0 0, Jesse Burdick 1-1 0-0 2, Yassin Hussein 1-2 2-2 4. Totals: 23-61 8-10 60.
SCC (79)
Jesiah West 7-13 7-8 21, Nariq Chisholm 1-2 0-0 2, Koby Isaac 5-12 2-2 15, Davion Bailey 4-14 8-8 16, Jimmy Beane 0-3 2-4 2, Gavin Kies 2-5 2-4 7, Jakada Stone 0-2 2-2 2, Bruce Carpenter 3-9 3-4 11, Manny Austin 1-3 0-0 3, Railer Vargas-Hernandez 0-0 0-1 0. Totals: 23-63 26-33 79.
Halftime: SCC 32, Lake Land 30. Fouls: Lake Land 22, SCC 11. Fouled out: None. Technicals: None. 3-point goals: Lake Land 6-18 (Walker 2-10, Scales 0-1, Stubblefield 2-4, Davis 1-2, Camacho 1-1), SCC 7-22 (West 0-1, Isaac 3-7, Bailey 0-6, Kies 1-3, Stone 0-1, Carpenter 2-3, Austin 1-1). Rebounds: Lake Land 41 (Kuljuhovic 8), SCC 42 (West 16). Assists: Lake Land 7 (Walker 3), SCC 14 (Bailey 4). Blocked shots: Lake Land 4 (Hussein 2), SCC 2 (West, Vargas-Hernandez). Steals: Lake Land 8 (Cox 2, Walker 2, Davis 2, Camacho 2), SCC 12 (Kies 3).
Records: Lake Land 3-3, SCC 9-1.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: SCC rebounds from road rout to drain Lake Land in The Broadway Classic
