Basketball: Storm Wins Opener; Unveils Championship Banner

By ZACH KEPLEY
Sports Editor
The Thomasville Times

November 4, 2008

LEXINGTON — There was much to celebrate Saturday afternoon as the Davidson County Community College Storm basketball season opened its 20008-09 campaign.

After a ceremony that honored the inaugural team that finished at 22-7, and gained a share of the Tar Heel Conference regular season championship, the new crop of talent took to the floor and snatched a 94-73 victory over Johnston Community College.
There were spurts where the Storm appeared to be on the same level as last year’s team, but at other times showed it has much to tweak before being serious contenders in a tough conference.

“We started and finished the game well, but the other 35 minutes were not great, but some of that is to be expected,” said Storm head coach Matt Ridge. “We did a lot of positive things throughout the game, and down the stretch we made some big-time plays.”

The Storm raced out to a 12-0 lead and appeared to be on its way to a blowout that fans at Brinkley Gymnasium have become accustomed to, but those miscues that can be expected during a first game started to come in bunches.

DCCC held a 47-31 lead at the half, but missed opportunities around the rim allowed the Jaguars to stay in contention.

JCC scored the first two buckets to open the second half, but the Storm countered with three to push the lead out to 19. Foul trouble started to plague the home team over the next few minutes, with big men P.J. Hamright and Eric Potts both picking up their fourth fouls with 16 minutes left to be played.

The Jaguars put together a run over the next seven minutes to get within single digits at 68-59, as the Storm continued to leave points in the paint.

“I have been coaching for 13 years and I don’t think I have ever had a team miss that many layups,” said Ridge.

Needing someone to step up after Potts fouled out with 9:51 showing, fellow Trinity alum Josh Jones attacked the basket. The southpaw scored three buckets in a row to stake DCCC to a 76-64 lead, as the Storm went on a 18-9 run to finish the game.

“Not only were we sloppy with the ball, but also mentally sloppy,” Ridge said. “If we would have played like this in our league we would have lost, so we need to keep working. These guys are hungry to get better, and I think they just got nervous today.”

Still, a win is a win to Ridge and as he puts it, ‘the season is a marathon, not a sprint.’
“It feels good to get the first win under our belt, and the fact that I thought we played well below our standard and won by 20 is a good thing,” said Ridge.

Piedmont Baptist College pays a visit to Brinkley Gym Thursday night for a 7 p.m. contest.