The Jamestown Community College Jayhawks played an impressive opening 10 minutes of their NJCAA Division II men's basketball game against the CC of Beaver County Titans on Saturday afternoon.
But that was about the only good stretch for JCC.
Unfortunately, men's basketball games last 40 minutes and the result was an 89-74 win for CCBC.
Article Photos
Davonte Dunham puts up a 3-pointer over Andray Jefferson of the CC of Beaver County in Saturday’s NJCAA Division II men’s basketball game at JCC. See additional photos at cu.post-journal.com.
P-J photo by Jim Riggs
Lisa Monacelli
The win keeps the Titans undefeated at 8-0, with one of the wins a forfeit.
The Jayhawks saw their winning streak end at five and they are 6-4.
''In the first half we defended the first shot well, but what killed us was offensive boards,'' JCC coach Mike Cordovano said. ''They had more offensive boards (11) in the first half than we had rebounds (9). It was amazing we were winning (39-38 at halftime), but that's because we lived on the three.''
When the final rebound totals were posted, the Titans were just that on the boards. They had 43 compared to 18 for the Jayhawks.
''I told the kids their players just punched our players, our coach and assistant coach in the mouth,'' Cordovano said. ''We all got punched in the mouth today and in our own gym.''
He added, ''We pride ourselves on playing well at home and it just didn't happen. I told the kids this is a good team.''
But he didn't base that on CCBC's perfect record.
''They don't play the schedule we play, so I didn't go by their record,'' Cordovano said. ''But they did punch us in the mouth.''
Points were expected to be scored. The Titans came into the game averaging 104.7 points per game, which led NJCAA Division II. Individually, three players in the top 10 in scoring for NJCAA Division II were in action. JCC's Tyreek Jewell (24.6) and Davonte Dunham (24.5) were fourth and fifth respectively while Andre Anthony (22.9) of CCBC was 10th.
The Jayhawks came out flying and opened up a nine-point lead, 20-11, after eight minutes of play and 15 of those points came on 3-pointers. Kenny Stokes had two while Dunham, Calvin Sterling and Keyonne Hill had one each.
When JCC wasn't hitting from long range, they were driving to the bucket and picking up fouls. Beaver County was charged with six fouls in the opening eight minutes while the Jayhawks didn't get charged with their first until 9:08 was left in the first half.
''We just made our threes,'' was the way Cordovano described the quick start. ''We did shoot the ball well and maybe they didn't think we could shoot it that well. But after that, they locked us up.''
JCC was still leading by eight when the Titans came alive. They ran off 13 straight points to take a 30-25 lead with 5:30 left in the half.
''They got to the basket,'' Cordovano said. ''And we did a lousy job of rotating and when you rotate, you lose your man. The shot goes up, we don't put a body on a guy and bang, and it's a putback.''
The Jayhawks answered the run with a 3-pointer by Michael Forrest and a 2 by Jewell to tie the game. At halftime, JCC was in front by one, 39-38, by scoring seven of its last nine points at the foul line.
In the opening 2 minutes of the second half Beaver County continued to roll with a 9-2 start and Cordovano knew why.
''Offensive boards, second shots and fast breaks,'' he said. ''I called two timeouts within a minute to try to get us to go back and stop the ball. We didn't stop the ball at all on the breaks.''
JCC managed to pull within one, 47-46, before the Titans went on a 17-6 run to open up a 64-52 lead with 12 minutes left to play and the bulk of those point were because the Jayhawks were getting beat down the floor on defense. And offense, they were getting one shot and no rebounds.
And it remained that way for the remainder of the game.
Juan Stewart and Anthony led CCBC with 14 points each while Jummanne McDaniel and Denard Francis had 13 apiece and Andray Jefferson 10.
''If you have six guys in double figures, what does that tell you defensively as a team?'' Cordovano asked. ''We didn't stop them.''
Stokes led JCC with 19 points while Dunham had 17 and Jewell 15.
The Jayhawks return to action on Wednesday in Pittsburgh with a game at the CC of Allegheny County at 7 p.m.
JCC doesn't play at home again until Dec. 15 when it hosts The Post-Journal Classic. The Jayhawks will play Westmoreland County CC at 4 p.m. and at 6 p.m., Monroe CC takes on Columbus State CC. The consolation game game is on Dec. 16 at noon and the championship is at 2 p.m.
BEAVER COUNTY (89)
Anthony 6 0-0 14, Hall 2 2-2 7, McDaniel 5 2-2 13, Jefferson 4 0-0 10, Francis 5 3-5 13, Moore 1 1-3 3, Murphy 1 0-0 2, Somers 1 0-0 2, Stewart 5 3-5 14, Totals 34 14-21 89.
JCC (74)
Dunham 5 4-4 17, Hill 1 6-6 9, Reyes 0 0-0 0, Newell 0 0-0 0, Clarke 0 0-2 0, Jewell 6 3-4 15, Forrest 2 0-0 5, Stokes 6 4-6 19, Williams 0 1-2 0, Sterling 2 1-3 7, Garrett 0 1-2 1, Totals 22 20-29 74.
Halftime-JCC 39, Beaver County 38. 3-point goals-Anthony 2, Hall, McDaniel, Jefferson 2, Stewart, Dunham 3, Hill, Forrest, Stokes 3, Sterling 2. Total fouls-Beaver County 19, JCC 17. Fouled out-Somers.