Published: November 05, 2009 06:56 pm      

Hill’s 25 spur Jaguars past Wiley JV

By Jay Neal

sports@jacksonvilleprogress.com



Despite getting off to a slow start — Jacksonville College led the Wiley College junior varsity 39-35 at the break — the Jaguars popped the top on the new basketball season by scoring a commanding, 96-73, victory over the Wildcats in a game played at the Curtis Carroll Fieldhouse Wednesday night.

JC (1-0) wasted little time in establishing superiority in the final half as Daniel Skinner came up with the ball on a Wiley turnover and immediately drove down the one-hand slam for the first points of the second.

Skinner’s rim rattler came 16 seconds into the half, and Skinner then promptly followed the basket up with a six-foot bank shot on JC’s next trip down the floor as the Jags opened the segment on a 12-0 run that Wiley did not have a solution for.

Eric Kibi, Bryce Hill and Erik Martin added field goals to finish out the offensive spurt for the Purple and White with the final points of the run coming off two free throw shots off the hand of Kibi.

The Wildcats called a timeout at the 17:37 mark to reboot and afterwards managed to score for the first time in the half with 16:32 to play in the period.

That’s when Wiley’s Darius Bryant sank a pair from the charity line, making the score 50-40 in favor of JC.

Leading the way for the Jaguars was sophomore Bryce Hill, who popped in 25 points (16 of which came in the open half). Hill sank three buckets from long range, added eight rebounds and four steals.

Lancaster, Texas, freshman Daniel Skinner, a starter, also had a big night, scoring 18 points and hauling down seven boards. Skinner capped off the night with a thunderous one-hand jam that came with just over 30 seconds to play in the game that made the score 94-73.

Kibi hit for 14 points and also led all players with 12 boards while freshman Gary Robertson came in off the bench to add 13 points for the Jaguars, who return to action at 7:30 p.m. tonight against Collin County Community College in the first round of the Collin County Classic in Plano.

Another bright spot for JC was the play of freshman-reserve post Sergej Pucar out of Belgrade, Serbia. The 6-foot-11 tower had eight rebounds and scored four points in his first taste of action.

The first half was typical for opening night as turnovers and nerves were as about as plentiful as quality basketball. The JC miscues allowed Wiley to stay in the game, although the Wildcats never led during the contest.

JC’s biggest lead of the opening half came at the 9:39 point when Hill drained a field goal that rocketed the Jags to a 24-13 advantage.

The Wildcats were led by Ahmad Reynolds with 19 points.

JC head coach Cinco Boone, who logged his first victory as a head coach Wednesday, was all-in-all pretty satisfied with his squad’s performance.

“I told them at the half that I wanted them to keep playing our game, to keep the tempo up and to keep things (moving) fast,” Boone said when asked what the biggest difference was in the Jaguars’ play in the first and second halves. “We also made a simple defensive adjustment with our guards and in the way we guarded the basketball in the second half.”

Boone went on to further outline the positives and the areas of concern in his team’s play.

“I liked the tempo that we were able to maintain, our defensive play and the way we were able to execute tonight,” he said. “I thought we missed some chippies (easy shots) out there where we had a near-perfect look that I would have liked to have seen us make, but for some of the guys, it was their first (college) game, and there were some jitters.”



By the numbers



Wiley JV 38 35 - 73

JC 39 57 - 96

Wiley JV —Traylon Hill,10; Jenrod Eaton, 4; Sebastian Young, 12; Christopher Hayes, 3; Michael Moreaux, 5; Darius Bryant, 12; Ahmad Reynolds, 19; Cornelius Walker, 6; Rashid Sow, 2.

JC — Daniel Skinner, 18; Lyn’dale Brown, 6; Erik Martin 7; Javae Gilchrist, 5; Sergej Pucar, 4; Bryce Hill, 25; Terrance Sims, 4; Eric Kibi, 14; Gary Robertson. 13.

Three-point goals — (W) Hayes,1; Bryant, 2; Reynolds, 1. (JC) Martin,1; Robertson, 1; Hill, 3

Records — Wiley JV 1-1; JC 1-0.

Next game — JC vs. Collin County (in Collin County Classic), 6 p.m. tonight.