2/11/15 • By Zach Chriswell / zchriswell@columbustelegram.com
COLUMBUS -- Despite trailing for most of the game, the Raiders were never discouraged.
In fact, the Central Community College men's basketball team may have played its best basketball of the night once the Storm took a 10-point lead late in the second half.
"A couple of times, we were on the ropes there," Central head coach Jerry Drymon said. "We just kept coming back and fighting and kept persevering. When you talk about playing in March, whether you're talking about high school in the state tournament, or collegiately, you have to be able to, when teams make runs at you, make runs back at them. I thought we did a really nice job of answering their runs, and at the end, just holding on."
The Raiders put together a 19-7 run to end the game in an 83-81 win over Southeast Community College Wednesday at the Raider Fieldhouse.
"At that point, down 10, we took a timeout and talked about just settling down," Drymon said. "We talked about communicating, we made a defensive switch that worked really well. We were able to get a few steals, get some easy buckets and that kind of got us going a little bit."
It wasn't automatic for Central, though. With 18 seconds remaining in the game, Southeast's Snyder Cenecharles drilled a 3-pointer to cut the Central lead to 81-80.
Shawn Robinson hit two free throws on the other end to extend the lead to three points.
With 3.5 seconds left, Cenecharles was fouled and sent to the line.
The Southeast freshman hit the first, but missed the second. After grabbing the offensive rebound, Southeast threw up a long 2-pointer at the buzzer, but missed.
The Raiders got off to a hot start, hitting two 3-pointers in their 8-0 run to start the game.
"It was pretty important," Drymon said of the quick start. "We were almost too excited. We knew we couldn't get so excited because a couple minutes in, there was a big drop off. It was a good start. We had confidence -- we lost to them in double overtime before and we kind of gave that game away. I think we showed a lot of confidence."
Southeast, though, matched Central's 8-0 run with an 8-0 run of its own.
The two teams traded shots until a 10-0 Southeast run put a bit of separation between the teams.
At halftime, Southeast led 38-35.
"We competed in the first half," Drymon said. "Our execution wasn't great in the second half. But when it mattered and the game was on the line, we kept executing, we kept coming back. We did some nice things."
Thomas Johnson scored 20 points for the Raiders, while Matthew McLeod added 15 points, and Shawn Robinson and Ojuok Thok each scored 14.
Central travels to Iowa Western Saturday.
Tuesday at the Raider Fieldhouse
Southeast 38 43 - 81
Central (7-20) 35 48 - 83
* SOUTHEAST (field goals-free throws-fouls-points) - Maurice Young 1 2-2 0 4; Londell Stephens 1 0-0 0 3; Tyrell Allen 3 2-2 1 10; John Swift 4 2-2 1 14; Noah Scott 1 0-1 4 3; Rakeem Hicks 1 1-2 4 3; Altez Davis 6 3-5 4 15; Tychicus Anderson 1 2-4 0 4; Josh Stroud 2 2-2 0 6; Snyder Cenecharles 4 1-4 2 13; Liam McRae 2 2-2 2 6. Totals 26 17-26 18 81.
* CENTRAL - Ojuok Thok 5 2-2 2 14; Shawn Robinson 5 4-4 1 14; Matthew McLeod 4 6-8 4 15; Tyrone Clayton 2 2-2 3 6; Thomas Johnson 7 0-0 5 20; Connor Long 3 0-0 2 7; David Joachim 0 0-2 0 0; Nietzche Jeantinor 1 0-0 0 2; Daniel Maganda 1 3-4 3 5. Totals 28 17-22 20 83.
* 3-point field goals - Southeast 12 (Swift 4, Cenecharles 4, Allen 2, Stephens 1, Scott 1), Central 10 (Johnson 6, Thok 2, McLeod 1, Long 1).