It didn’t take long for Lenoir Community College’s basketball team to shake off the holiday rust Saturday.
The Lancers were equally effective when it started to reappear.
Josh Hill scored 27 points and Isaac Brown added 26 as LCC fought off a second-half comeback in a 99-88 Region X win over Guilford Tech.
The Lancers (4-3, 1-1 Region X), playing for the first time since Dec. 8, saw a 19-point second-half lead shrink to four with 3:11 remaining before pulling away a second time.
“We got a little lackadaisical, but toward the end I thought we had to grind it out,” LCC coach Bobby Dawson said. “We had some kids that stepped up.”
The Lancers women didn’t fare as well. Anika Jones led five players to score in double figures in Catawba Valley Community College’s 88-66 over LCC earlier in the afternoon.
Dominique Graham and Zera McDuffie scored 15 points each for LCC (10-4, 1-2).
In the men’s game, Sean Deniton scored 28 points to lead the comeback efforts for Guilford Tech (6-10).
Leading 64-45 less than 5 minutes into the second half, the suddenly sloppy Lancers endured a methodical 21-6 run to find themselves in a tight contest.
But LCC clamped down on defense, took smarter shots and hit the accelerator in transition to outscore the visitors 13-6 in the final 3 minutes.
“The rust was falling off,” said Brown, a sophomore guard out of Bethel Academy who credited Dawson’s recent emphasis on conditioning with the arm’s-length win. “We were executing a lot more. We weren’t tired. People weren’t asking to be taken out of the game because we had the energy.”
Deon Platt, a 6-foot-6-inch sophomore center, scored 25 points for Guilford Tech.
The Titans built their comeback on 3-pointers but missed their final five attempts as LCC pulled away. Guilford Tech finished 6 for 20 from long range.
Early in the game, the teams traded baskets and leads a remarkable seven straight times before the Lancers separated themselves.
A furious 22-3 run gave LCC a 30-15 lead with 9:20 left in the first half. Thanks largely to 10 Guilford Tech turnovers and 13 transition points in the half, the Lancers led 46-38 at the break.
LCC, which plays host to top-ranked Louisburg on Monday, didn’t return from a lengthy holiday break until this week, leaving Dawson to rely on his players to take the initiative to stay in shape.
The 36th-year coach, whose team plays on a court named in his honor, agreed with Brown’s assessment.
“We had a lot of guys that contributed, but I liked the energy they were showing,” Dawson said. “That was the thing: They brought a lot of energy out there. And as long as you do that, you can be in a game.”
David Hall can be reached at (252) 559-1086 or at david.hall@kinston.com.