Blue Lights College took a punch in the mouth in the opening minutes of Monday night’s basketball game at Mount Olive, then bounced back to claim the second win of the program’s short history 87-73 over the Trojan JV squad.
UMO struck early, scoring on the opening possession and running out to an 11-0 lead in the game’s first five minutes. The Thoroughbreds (2-6), playing without injured starter Dominique Hunter, then awakened and reeled off a 13-4 run of their own to pull within two at the 12-minute mark. Again the Trojans took advantage of TLC’s apparent disorientation and bulged out to a 29-18 lead.
Blue Lights then began to take advantage of its quickness and pushed the ball inside. Forward Jorge Garcia hit back-to-back shots in the paint, and with three seconds to play, guard Richard Campbell sank three consecutive free throws to tie the game 47-47 going into the locker room.
“We were having a hard time running our set plays,” said head coach Zach Hendricks. “Mount Olive was doing a good job in their zone. So in the locker room (at half time), we made the adjustment to push the tempo.”
And that did the trick. The second half belonged to the Herd, beginning with Christian Risk’s three-pointer to open the session and give BLC a 50-47 lead it would not relinquish. Forward Jordan Kirkland connected on two straight buckets, first a jumper from the bonusphere at the 8:45 mark, then taking an assist from Campbell in transition and laying it in, pushing the Thoroughbreds to a double-digit advantage 72-61. Garcia then took over, finishing off the Trojans by scoring on three consecutive possessions, with the Herd stretching their lead to as many as 21 before closing out the win.
The Thoroughbreds will take the Thanksgiving break off before traveling to Pfeiffer to meet the Falcon JVs on November 29.
