JWCC men give up coast-to-coast finish, drop pivotal conference game to Danville

QUINCY — Four seconds away from forcing overtime and giving itself a chance to stay in first place in the Mid-West Athletic Conference, the John Wood Community College men’s basketball team neglected the golden rule of defense.

Stop the ball.

Danville Area Community College’s Drew Reifsteck drove the length of the floor in four seconds and scored the game-winning layup as time expired, giving the Jaguars an 81-79 victory at the Student Activity Center.

By splitting two conference clashes with the Trail Blazers, the 18th-ranked Jaguars (14-3, 4-1 MWAC) moved a half-game ahead of JWCC (15-9, 4-2 MWAC) into first place.

“It’s a lot easier to win the league with one loss than it is two,” JWCC coach Brad Hoyt said. “At the same time, we have to worry about the next game and going 1-0 the next time. Our goals are always to win the league. Now, we may need a little bit of help. We can only control what we can control, and we let one slip away today.”

JWCC point guard Gabe Cox gave the Trail Blazers the lead at 79-78 with two free throws before the Jaguars’ Kendall Taylor made a free throw to tie the game. JWCC called timeout with 26.6 seconds left to set up a play for the go-ahead basket.

However, on a baseline drive from the right corner, JWCC’s Jarvis Jennings stepped out of bounds to give Danville possession with four seconds remaining and set up Reifsteck’s game-ending coast-to-coast finish.

“The league is really even across the board, so it’s kind of hard to tell what’s going to happen,” Hoyt said.

Jennings finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Brandon Kracht had 20 points and Ja’Veon Taylor added 13 points. Stephen Atkinson led Danville with 18 points.