Kevin Jenkins goes up for a layup in the Feb. 13 men’s match against Sinclair CC.

Kevin Jenkins goes up for a layup in the Feb. 13 men’s match against Sinclair CC.

Cody Grossman
Staff Writer

Kwevon Corn started off the game on Feb. 13 with the first basket in what was a highly contested start to the first half. It was a back and forth game to start. Matt Wysocki played well with a couple of quick baskets and a few offensive rebounds. Little defense was played by either team and both scored almost at will. Wesley Harris ran the fast break effectively as he has been known to do. His blazing speed was too much for Sinclair Community College to keep up with. Unfortunately, the Commodores turned the ball over a few times which turned out to be costly. Sinclair took a small lead, only to be matched by Corn and his three point mirage. Corn brought LCCC to within three, while Chris Theodus brought the defensive intensity and hustle off the bench. But Sinclair’s offense was just too much for LCCC to handle. The bigs of Sinclair overpowered the Commodores, as Sinclair built a 15 point lead late in the first and scored in the post often. The Commodores had no answer. They went into halftime down, 60-36.

The second half was much of the same for LCCC. Sinclair pounded the ball inside, scoring in the paint, and getting to the free throw line. LCCC showed no sign of life. Zach Swain had a big block on one of Sinclair’s centers, despite being six inches shorter. But that didn’t stop him.

Theodus and T’Andre Perkins also played well in the second half, trying whatever they could to get the Commodores back into the game, but it was far too late. Sinclair controlled the game and even gained the attention from the LCCC home crowd after a big time dunk. Andrew Bragg got the crowd back into it briefly after a huge block at the rim, which stopped another dunk.

Sinclair played well, and LCCC couldn’t keep up with them.

Matthew Watkins scored late in the game, but the lead was insurmountable. Sinclair went on to win big – the final score was 115-88.

“We didn’t play very good defense,” Theodus said after the game. “Anytime you give up 115 points it’s going to be tough to win. We got a lot of good shots but we shot very poorly. But it all boils down to defense for us. We didn’t show up defensively”

“It was a hard loss for us today,” Watkins added, “especially at this point of the season where we need to be finishing out strong. We failed defensively and we shot poorly on the offensive end. We got enough shots, put up 80+ as a team,” Watkins continued, “had 5 guys with double figures, and out rebounded them but it wasn’t enough. In the words of one of our captains ‘We thought we could compete with them but we couldn’t’.”