It was a tale of two halves for National Park College's men's basketball team on Monday.
After a slow start left the Nighthawks (11-2) with just a three-point lead at the break, they put up 62 points in the second half to cruise to a 109-84 victory over Rhema Bible Training College at The Kettle in the NPC Wellness Center.
The big win was welcomed after the team picked up its first home loss since joining the National Junior College Athletic Association, 87-83, on Thursday to Southern Arkansas University Tech (12-7). Head coach Jason Hudnell explained simply the game was "ugly."
"I wasn't really happy with how we started the game," he said. "We didn't have a lot of energy. Some of that is because it's kind of a strange day -- no classes, so we come in, and our routine is a little bit off. That's not an excuse; it's just we didn't really start the game as we really would have liked to.
"I felt like it took us 28, 30 minutes before we actually woke up and started playing basketball. Then when we did, we looked like how we can look when we're here at The Kettle in front of a pretty good crowd on a holiday."
The Nighthawks got on the board first Monday as Hot Springs native K.J. Corder was fouled just 15 seconds into the game, the sophomore guard making one of his two shots from the line, but the early lead bounced back-and-forth between the two teams almost as quickly as the ball traveled down the court.
The Eagles pulled to a 7-4 lead with 2:18 off the clock in the first half before the Nighthawks hit a 15-3 run to take a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the night. A bucket by junior guard Jermain Brown stopped the bleeding for the Eagles to pull within 18-12 with 13:24 to go in the half, but the two teams continued to trade buckets until the Eagles pulled within 24-22 with just under 10 minutes left in the period.
A putback and then a 3-pointer by sophomore Braylon Steen pushed the lead back out to seven points with 9:01 left on the clock before a trey by freshman guard Dayten Wishon left the Nighthawks up by 10 with 8:17 to go. The Eagles pulled back within one with a 3-pointer by sophomore forward Del Guerrero to make it 38-37 at the 4:33 mark, but National Park College held on to take a 47-44 lead into the break.
"I've got two leading scorers -- the two of them average 30 -- one of them has been down, and the other one's got his foot hurt," said Rhema head coach Perry Shockley. "Outside of that, I'm really proud of the first half.
"Four new kids that just came in this semester, I felt like they handled the ball and did some things and stayed right there with them. They've been playing together all year, and he's got some kids back from last year. I knew that they would be tough in their own gym."
The Eagles managed to knot the score with 1:45 off the clock in the second half on a bucket by Brown before freshman post David Jagers, a 6-5 powerhouse from Mayflower, hit his first bucket of the game to make it 51-49 just 20 seconds later. The bucket kicked off a 19-7 run by the Nighthawks to push out to a 68-56 lead with 12:49 to go.
The Nighthawks pulled out to an 80-63 lead with 8:31 remaining, but Rhema never could get any closer than a 12-point deficit as the home team cruised to the victory.
"The second half -- energy -- they just came out on us, and we couldn't match it (due to) a little fatigue and a little disorientation about working together as a team from having not played together," Shockley said. "His kids played well in the second half, and they knew what they were doing.
"We missed shots there in the start of the second half and kept it close for a little bit, but once they got out on us, we just didn't have the energy to stay with it. I was proud of them."
Hudnell said he was impressed with his team's performance in the second half.
"I'd say it was brilliant coaching and an unbelievable halftime speech, but I'm sure that's not the case," Hudnell said. "We really did just challenge our young men and said, 'Look, there are only so many games that you get in your career. There's only so many times you get to be on this floor and play with these men and play with these teammates. Let's go out and make use of every minute of it.' We really challenged them to do that.
"We really challenged David. He's the biggest man in the gym, the best skilled offensive player on the post that's here. We really challenged him, and he stepped up and had 17 in the second half. I'm really proud of how good his second half was. He's a really good offensive scorer down there."
Jagers and Steen led the Nighthawks with 18 points each. Steen pulled down 11 rebounds with an assist, and Jagers finished with four rebounds and three steals.
Hudnell described Steen as a "walking double-double."
"We're going to miss that one when he's gone," Hudnell said. "We're going to miss two-four."
Sophomore point guard Seth Duke added 16 points on 7 of 8 shooting with a pair of 3-pointers, four rebounds and a pair of steals. Corder finished with 13 points with five assists, four rebounds and a steal.
"K.J. was K.J.," Hudnell said. "K.J. is one of those that you don't really know if you notice him, and all of a sudden you look in the scorebook, and he's got 15 points, five assists and four boards.
"That's kind of what K.J. does every night for us. He's the model of consistency. He's going to do that for us, and if he gets a shot at the next level, he's going to do that there, too."
Guerrero led the Eagles with 22 points, four steals, three assists and a rebound. Freshman forward Annikan Okutinyang added 19 with three rebounds.
The Nighthawks will host Arkansas State University Mid-South (12-5) on Thursday at 6 p.m. Both play in Region 2 of Division II in the NJCAA.
National Park College lost its first two Region 2 games against North Arkansas College (11-7, 1-1). The Greyhounds lost to SAU Tech on Jan. 12, but they defeated the Pioneers, 90-80, on Saturday.
The Nighthawks have also added Hendrix College to their schedule this season, hosting the Warriors on Feb. 6 at The Kettle before traveling to Conway on Feb. 11.
Sports on 01/23/2019