The 64-60 win over Penn Valley on Feb. 6, showed that the STLCC-Meramec Men’s Basketball team had the will and inspiration to come from behind and pull out the winner. What the score doesn’t show, is the inconsistency of the team throughout the second half.
Joe Ray
– Staff Writer –
The 64-60 win over Penn Valley on Feb. 6, showed that the STLCC-Meramec Men’s Basketball team had the will and inspiration to come from behind and pull out the winner. What the score doesn’t show, is the inconsistency of the team throughout the second half.
Coming into Saturday’s match, the Magic were 15-9 with a 3-1 Region XVI record, according to National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). Penn Valley, their rival across the state in Kansas City, had sole possession of the lead for Region XVI. The Magic rank second in defense in their region, according to the NJCAA and Meramec guard Dietrick Sooter, is eighth in the NJCAA in free throw percentage.
The Magic started the game out strong and had a good lead going into halftime, 30-21. After halftime, their lack of control of the ball was a big problem, leading to turnovers and missed rebounds. Meramec coach Randy Albrecht expressed his opinion about the turnovers.
“We’ve worked on it all year. Part of our problem is we have all freshman guards. We have no players that are experienced well enough in this to know how to get strong with the ball. And the only way you learn, unfortunately, for a lot of people is that you have to make a few mistakes to figure it out. You know, we have to get better at handling the ball. That’s probably the weakest part of our game right now,” said Coach Albrecht after the game.
Justin Henderson of the Penn Valley Scouts scored 26 of his 32 points in the second half to put the Scouts out to a 56-48 lead. Henderson kept draining 3’s to really push his team in front, and Meramec wasn’t shooting well from the field. The break point for the boys was when center Dallis Johnson had a breakaway and took it in for a slam dunk to move the momentum over to the Magic. After the dunk, the crowd started to get into the game and as it seemed that the Magic may still be in the game. With less than 30 seconds left in the game, Josh Dale took the ball to the hoop and missed. He followed the miss with a rebound, which sealed the victory for the Magic.
There was one chance left for the Scouts to tie the game, but then Sooter came away with the steal from Henderson, who led his team with 32 points.
The Magic have five more games remaining on their schedule, including a matchup against Forest Park on Wednesday, Feb. 10. After the final game, they start Region XVI Tournament play. The win put the Magic at a 16-9 record and a 4-1 record in the region, which clinches another winning season for Albrecht.
Albrecht commented after the game on the exciting finish, “The kids had a lot of resilience there. We were 10 down — could’ve given up, but we kept fighting. We stayed positive. You got to play it all out, all 40 minutes of the game. I thought we had some good heart there at the end.”
