Men's Basketball | 1/5/2022 1:48:00 PM
Box Score Neosho County rang in the New Year properly, overcoming a double-digit lead in the game's first half to top Northern Oklahoma-Enid 95-94 at Panther Gymnasium on Monday night.
Freshman guard Micah Jones led the way with 28 points, five rebounds and five assists. Two other Panthers finished in double figures with freshman Zaakir Sawyer adding 22 points and six rebounds while his cousin – sophomore Jerry Carraway – chipped in 19 points and seven rebounds with several huge 3's down the stretch. NOC-Enid entered Monday's tilt with wins over Pratt and Allen County on its resume.
The contest marked the program's first game in nearly five weeks as the Panthers sat idle the entire month of December. The rust showed early with NOC-Enid scoring the game's first 11 points. From there NCCC would settle in and chip away at the deficit. Trailing 37-30 with 4:22 left in the first half, #SHOtime went into full effect with the Panthers exploding for a 15-4 run with Sawyer scoring eight of those points.
"After getting down 11-0 our guys really showed great resiliency by fighting back and making a run of our own to close the half and grab the momentum," said Neosho County head coach Luke Mackay.
The lead would increase to as many as eight points (89-81) following back-to-back buckets by freshman guard Ezrah Vaigafa with less than three minutes to play. He finished with seven points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Enid wouldn't go away quietly, using a 10-2 spurt to tie the game at 91 with 51 seconds left. From there Carraway would do the rest, making four straight free throws in the game's final 40 seconds to seal the deal. As a team, NCCC attempted a season-high 32 free throws, while also going 12-for-29 from 3-point range with Jones and Carraway each hitting four. NCCC currently leads the nation in 3-point FG attempts per game (36.8) and ranks third in 3-point FG made per game (11.1).
Just nine Panthers were available for the game and all found a way to make an impact, with all nine scoring and grabbing at least one rebound in what was a total team effort.
"All nine guys who played gave us a huge lift in their own way and contributed to the win. It would've been easy to roll over considering the run of injuries and COVID interruptions we have had but they held together and pulled out a win," said Mackay.
Neosho County will return to action on Thursday with a matinee tip-off at Bethany College. The following night the Panthers will host McPherson College, which will be the team's final non-conference game before beginning Jayhawk Conference action next Wednesday by hosting Hesston College (9-5)
