Trail Blazers pick up pace in second half, find space to excel offensively against Eagles

QUINCY — Space equals pace.

If the John Wood Community College men’s basketball players execute such a notion more consistently, the offense Trail Blazers coach Brad Hoyt has designed for this group will run more efficiently.

The first seven minutes of the second half Friday night against Rock Valley College proved that point.

Leading by three at halftime, the Trail Blazers went on a 20-2 run to start the second half. The advantage proved insurmountable as JWCC finished off an 87-77 victory in the second game of the the Town and Country Inn and Suites Classic at JWCC’s Student Activity Center.

“Not being stagnant, not having the ball be still, that’s key,” Trail Blazers sophomore guard Jenson Whiteman said. “We were moving the ball and everyone was touching it. The pace was great. It’s hard to guard great pace. It’s hard to guard that.”

It’s why a tide-tilting run was possible.

“That can happen anytime we run our offense with great pace and share the ball,” Whiteman said.

Through three games, the Trail Blazers haven’t done that enough.

JWCC led Rock Valley 39-36 at halftime by limiting the Eagles to 16.7 percent shooting from 3-point range while collecting 10 assists on the Trail Blazers’ 13 field goals. Hoyt felt his crew played a solid 10 minutes of the first half and was stagnant for the other 10 minutes.

“So at halftime we tried to make the comparison that the game is a lot more fun when the ball moves and we move,” Hoyt said. “In the second half, we made shots in rhythm because we were moving. It changes everything in this game when you move and the ball moves.”

It opened up the perimeter.

JWCC made just 3 of 10 3-pointers in the first half, but Whiteman and Jeremiah Talton each hit a pair of treys in the second-half salvo. The Trail Blazers ended up shooting 58.3 percent (7 of 12) from 3-point range in the second half.

“The message was to keep doing what we had been doing to get the lead,” said Talton, who finished with 18 points. “We had to run the offense and get easy buckets. Getting out in transition and sharing the ball is definitely us. It gets us pumped a lot of the time.”

Whiteman led the Trail Blazers with 21 points, going 4 of 9 from 3-point range, while Joshua Talton had 16 points and six assists and Isaiah Ramey had 14 points. Joshua Talton and Ramey combined to go 12 of 18 from the field as JWCC piled up 27 assists on 32 field goals.

“We played the best basketball we’ve played yet at times tonight,” Hoyt said. “That’s encouraging.”

The finish wasn’t as uplifting. Rock Valley whittled JWCC’s advantage down to 83-77 with 1:07 to go before the Trail Blazers broke the Eagles’ press and scored the final four points.

“When we’re up 20, the three possessions we take off, especially at the college level, lead to being up only 12 like that,” Hoyt said. “Then you trade baskets before having two bad possessions, and all of a sudden it’s a seven-point game.

“It happens so much. It’s not just the mistakes when it’s a seven-point game that matter. It’s the mistakes when it’s a 20-point game that loom large.”

The Trail Blazers insist they will get better as closers, but the victory was a step in the right direction following Tuesday’s 31-point loss at Moberly Area Community College.

“We needed that,” Whiteman said. “One-hundred percent, we needed it.”