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Patriots Blow Out Hurricanes
By PAUL MONTANA - Bulletin Sports Writer

On Tuesday night, coach Kenny Wade said Patrick Henry Community College was aiming to not let No. 6 Louisburg “come into our house and embarrass us.” Instead, it was the Patriots doing the embarrassing.

In its first game after a 31-day vacation between semesters, PHCC ran Louisburg College out of the gym 92-75, handing the Hurricanes their first Region X loss in nearly two years. Louisburg won all of its conference games last season. The year before, the ’Canes lost to just two teams — including PHCC.

Their last Region X loss came Feb. 24, 2010 to Guilford Technical Community College. “We knock off a ranked opponent every year,” Wade said with a smile after the game. “For the last three years that I’ve been a head coach, we’ve knocked off a team ranked in the nation.

“The guys came out focused. They knew what they were up against, they knew what we were playing against. ... We were just trying to make a statement, and hopefully people heard (it).” The Patriots (7-3 overall, 2-0 Region X) built a 46-23 lead with 5:30 remaining in the first half by shooting a lights-out 22-for-31. Louisburg (10-3, 2-1), meanwhile, shot 7-for-30 in that stretch and had 10 turnovers.

“You pick an area of the game, and I’ll just say we just got beat at it,” said Louisburg coach Mark Vanderslice. “You say transition, they beat us in transition. You say hustle, they out-hustled us. You say making shots, they made shots. Every area of the game that was played, we were outplayed in.”

The Hurricanes had their best stretch of the night in the last five minutes of the opening period, going on a 15-4 run to cut the deficit ot 50-38 at the break. But PHCC came out swinging in the second half. With guards Brian Clarke and Rodney Livingston leading the charge, the Patriots made one transition bucket after another to take a 28-point lead (76-48), their largest of the night, nine minutes into the period.

“My mindset in the game was, attack the basket, and jump shots would fall later,” Clarke said. “If I kept getting to the basket, draw fouls and get to the line, then I could just go outside after that.” Ed Jenkins is the Patriots’ leading scorer on the season, but it was his teammates’ time to shine Tuesday. Backcourt mates Clarke and Livingston had 18 and 19 points, respectively, and forward Malcolm King, in just his third game back after missing the first seven games with a knee injury, had 19 points and 12 boards.

Louisburg switched from a man-to-man in the first half to a triangle-and-two with the focus on Jenkins and Livingston in the second, but it didn’t exactly go as planned. That scheme only helped players like King, Jenkins (14 points), Derrick Cates (14 points) and Aaron Williams (eight points, seven rebounds) get even more comfortable.

“It didn’t even end up looking like a triangle-and-two, it was such a big debacle out there,” Vanderslice said. But the biggest story for the Patriots may have been their defense against a team that came into Stone Hall averaging 96.5 points per game. LC shot 28-for-84 (33 percent) from the floor, including 4-of-25 from the 3-point line. That more than canceled out the Hurricanes’ 51-40 advantage on the glass.

“That’s what we focused on,” Livingston said. “We watched film on ’em, and saw that they don’t like to play too much defense, and they like to shoot a lot of jump shots. So we just had to guard on the perimeter.” The majority of those contested 3-point misses led to transition layups for Patrick Henry, whose guards drove the lane almost at will.

“Four-for-25 is 21 opportunities to get out for an easy layup,” Vanderslice said. And when the Hurricanes did get inside, 6-foot-10 Aaron Williams was in the middle waiting for them. He didn’t block many shots, but he altered numerous others as Louisburg missed countless opportunities in the lane.

“Anytime you’ve gotta do a dipsy-doo or change your shot, it’s not something that you’re used to,” Vanderslice said. “With a 6-10 body like that, he (Williams) did a great job.” PHCC did all of that with essentially a six-man rotation. After losing two players over the semester break — one to injury, another because of academic problems, Wade said — the Patriots are down to eight players, and two played just a few minutes Tuesday.

“I was worried (about the rotation), but we’ve got guys who play hard,” Wade said. “A lot of it is mentality. So dealing with that, as long as we’ve got them in a good mental state, we’ll be OK.” It was nearly a mirror image of the PHCC women’s first performance after the break three days earlier. Heavily favored to beat Brunswick Community College, which came into Stone Hall with an eight-player roster, the Lady Patriots laid an egg, losing 88-78.

Wade said his players, many of whom were on hand for that game, didn’t talk about learning a lesson from the women. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t concerned. “I’m gonna be honest with you — I didn’t think we had a good practice yesterday or the day before leading up to this game,” Wade said. “But they came out and put it together and executed.”

Patriot Women Notch Big Win
The 5th ranked PHCC Women's Basketball team defeated 7th ranked Guilford College 108-95 on Saturday Night to improve to 9-0 on the season.

Bria Robinson led the Lady Patriots with 26 points, including 10-for-10 from the free throw line while added six assists. Eulandra Forrest had 16 points, while Jessica Watkins added 13 points and five steals. Shawnese Eleazar added 12 points, six assists and six steals, and Serena had finished with 12 points.

The PHCC Men also picked up a win topping Virginia Highland 86-37 in Saturday's action.

    
Wingett Honored by PHCC Athletics

From Left to Right - Dean Myrick (Region X Men's Director), Dr. Max Wingett (PHCC President), and Chris Parker (PHCC Athletic Director, Region X Men's Assistant Director)

On October 5th, Patrick Henry Community College's basketball court was dedicated to its President, Dr. Max Wingett. Dr. Wingett has served as president of PHCC for 33 years. His vision of intercollegiate athletics became reality when PHCC joined the NJCAA in 2007-2008 and became the first institutional member of the VCCS to join. Dr. Wingett has always had a special spot for basketball in his life. He played collegiate at North Central College and he coached the Patriots' club basketball team in the 80s and 90s while serving as president. Additionally, in 2010 Dr. Wingett was elected to serve on the Presidential Board for the NJCAA. When asked about this honor, Dr. Wingett had this to say, "I'm just very honored to have this happen." Patrick Henry's athletic programs have experienced ample success over the past three seasons, with all four sports being ranked in the top 20 nationally. Beginning in the fall of 2012 PHCC will field a men's and women's soccer team. Patrick Henry Community College is a member of Region 10 and is located in Martinsville, VA.