Stout second-half effort propels Trail Blazers to statement victory over Hawks

QUINCY — John Wood Community College men’s basketball coach Brad Hoyt figured the gauntlet the Trail Blazers were about to run would reveal if they deserved to be in the conversation as one of the nation’s top teams.

Or were they just pretending to be in the mix?

Friday night, the 11th-ranked Trail Blazers proved they belonged.

An efficient second half offensively and a buckle-down defensive effort led to a 91-78 victory over No. 8 Henry Ford Community College in the John Wood November Classic at the Student Activity Center. No. 6 Des Moines Area Community College beat No. 12 Milwaukee Area Tech 65-63 in the event’s first game.

“This is a national tournament level classic,” Hoyt said. “It would not surprise me if all four teams playing this weekend are playing in the national tournament. There is no guarantee of that, but you want to see where you’re at. At least for today, we feel we can be in that conversation.”

JWCC (2-1) will face Des Moines Area Community College (3-1) at 3 p.m. Saturday after Henry Ford (2-1) and Milwaukee Area Tech (3-1) go head-to-head at 1 p.m.

“That’s the beauty of these two-game events and why we schedule the way we do because we have to come back tomorrow and play the defending national champion,” Hoyt said. “They are really stinking good. I like that for us because it exposes personality. It exposes strengths. It exposes weaknesses. That’s what November is all about.”

The first two weeks of November have revealed the Trail Blazers can take a punch and bounce back to deliver one of their own.

Leading 45-42 at halftime, JWCC put the clamps on Henry Ford by limiting the Hawks to 32.3 percent shooting from the field and 22.2 percent from 3-point range. The Trail Blazers also owned a 48-22 advantage on points in the paint and an 18-2 edge in second-chance points.

“We just really had to grind it out the last six or seven minutes,” Hoyt said. “We’re still in that phase of trying to find the right combinations offensively and defensively, and I thought we found a pretty good one defensively.”

Offensively, the Trail Blazers shot 53.3 percent from the field in the second half and saw their experience wear down the Hawks. Sophomore forward Jarvis Jennings finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds, while freshman guard Brandon Kracht had 19 points, six rebounds and four assists as all five starters finished in double figures.

“Our confidence is pretty high,” Hoyt said. “We had a stretch with about three or four minutes remaining in regulation where we scored a couple of times and then got a couple of stops. That kind of deflated Henry Ford a little bit.”

It’s a sign this team is finding its rhythm and form a little more each game.

“Beating teams of that caliber should give us confidence going through the next month,” Hoyt said.