Roadrunners win in final seconds

Sedalia, Mo.-The State Fair Community College (SFCC) Roadrunners men's basketball team battled back to claim a 69-68 victory over Neosho County Community College on Monday afternoon, Nov. 24 inside the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center. The victory was the fifth consecutive win for SFCC.

The Roadrunners (8-4) trailed 14-7 in the first half. The seven-point advantage was the largest held by either team in the contest. Neosho led 34-30 at halftime.

SFCC took a 36-34 advantage with less than 19 minutes to go in the game. Neosho took a 59-55 lead with less than eight minutes to go in the contest. The Roadrunners erased that deficit to take a 63-61 lead with less than five minutes to go.

Neosho took a 68-67 lead with about 26 seconds remaining. SFCC had the ball with 6.7 seconds remaining still trailing by one point. SFCC sophomore forward Daniel Garza grabbed the offensive rebound off a missed shot from sophomore forward Malick Ndiaye and put it  back up and in with seconds remaining in the game. Neosho missed a three-point shot at the buzzer to seal the victory for SFCC.

"We were able to get Nate Wilder going downhill," said Roadrunners head coach Jeremy Jackson. "He dropped it off to Malick Ndiaye because the defense converged, Danny did a great job of corralling that offensive rebound."

Wilder and sophomore forward Ibraheem Sylla tied for the team lead in scoring with 11 points each. Sylla also dished out a team-high three assists. Freshman wing Da'Ron Hall contributed another double-double with 10 points and a team-high 12 rebounds. Hall and Ndiaye tied for the team lead in blocked shots with two. Garza chipped in with 10 points.

"I thought we had a lot of mental mistakes," said Jackson. "We didn't get out in transition enough. Neosho is a very well coached team. They came in ready and prepared. They moved the ball really well against our zone. I was proud to see that our guys responded and got in a groove defensively. We have a lot of work to do. We have a bunch of guys who are new to this system."

SFCC will return to action on Friday, Nov. 28 at the Moberly Classic with a game against Highland Community College-Illinois. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Moberly, Mo.

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics