If Monday served as a measuring stick for Lenoir Community College’s basketball team, one thing was made perfectly clear.
The Lancers have plenty of growing to do.
Terance Christian scored 23 points and No. 1 Louisburg had its way with LCC in a 113-73 Region X laugher.
Kevin Williams added 20 points for the bigger, stronger and faster Hurricanes, whose high-flying transition game helped build a second-half lead that grew as big as 47 points.
“This team is No. 1, and they’re No. 1 for a reason,” Lancers coach Bobby Dawson said.
“We didn’t have an answer for them. We played pretty well there for a minute or two, but their size and length just wore us down, man.”
Isaac Brown had 19 points for LCC, including a layup that tied the game at 15-15 less than 5 minutes in. But the Hurricanes (16-0, 5-0 Region X) quickly went on a 15-2 run to break it open.
Josh Hill scored 16 points for the Lancers (4-4, 1-2), who trailed 61-35 at the half.
The Lancers stayed within arm’s reach during the teams’ previous meeting, a 114-87 Louisburg win on Dec. 1. But on Monday, the Hurricanes would have none of it.
They scored 12 straight points beginning at the 8:52 mark in the second half, including a pair of fast-break dunks by the 6-foot-2-inch Christian that stretched the lead to 95-58 and put momentum squarely on the visitors side.
When the Lancers did manage to score, it seemed Louisburg was already at the other end of the floor sending up a shot.
Committing 17 turnovers didn’t help LCC’s cause, and neither did an inability to rebound and keep up on defense.
“Other than that, I think we competed with them,” said Lancers guard Blake Washington, who scored nine points. “We have the talent. We have a lack of size, but we can beat them with our speed (and) boxing out — you know, basic fundamentals.”
Dawson was pleased with his team’s effort and hopes the players take notice of the gap between them and the nation’s top-ranked NJCAA Division II team.
“I thought the kids played hard,” he said. “This was a good game for us. I think this is one that we can draw from for a long time this year. We should never get the big head about anything whenever we win another one.”
Brown, a sophomore shooting guard out of Bethel Christian Academy, would prefer to go ahead and put the loss behind him.
“All this really means is we’ve got to work harder,” he said. “We’ve got a fresh start tomorrow. We’ve got to have amnesia about this game and get back in the gym.”
David Hall can be reached at (252) 559-1086 or at david.hall@kinston.com.
