By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
What figured to be a great individual battle never had a chance to fully materialize.
Thursday's game at Brewton between Southern Union College and the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawks pitted two of the top five individual scorers in the country. Southern Union's Marcus Perry has been ranked second in the country most of the season at 24.8 points per game. JDCC's Greg Dickinson, who has been as high as third, entered play fifth at 22.6.
Less than four minutes into the game the Warhawks lost Dickinson to severe knee sprain. His status for the remainder of the season is unclear at this point.
Not only did JDCC lose Dickinson, it lost a 97-89 decision in an Alabama Community College Conference contest.
"Losing Greg was a tough blow for us. With him out, we had to have some people step up," JDCC coach Allen Gainer said.
The Warhawks had that with freshman Norvell "Junior" Coleman, who turned in one of the better individual performances in JDCC history with a career high 42 points.
JDCC actually did a decent job against Perry and held him to 19 points, five below his season average. However, the Warhawks (2-5 in the ACCC and 7-13 overall) could not contain Southern Union's perimeter game. Southern Union had five players with at least one three-pointer and 13 for the game.
Once again JDCC found itself having to battle from behind. Southern Union had a 19-12 advantage halfway through the first half and extended it to 47-36 by half-time.
The other trademark for the Warhawks has been to battle back in the second half. JDCC trimmed the visitors' lead to just 63-61 after a hoop by Coleman with 8:14 still left.
The next four minutes would be the Warhawks' downfall. During that time Southern Union got a three-point play by Jacoby Stockdale and three three-pointers by Trent Dix that knocked the lead back into double digits at 77-66.
For the second straight game freshman Randall Burno tried to rally JDCC to a second half comeback. In Monday's overtime win over Bishop State, Burno was held scoreless in the first half and had just two points halfway through the second half. He then tallied 18 points over the next 15 minutes to pace JDCC to a win.
In Thursday's game, Burno was again held scoreless in the first half, but he exploded for 18 points in the second half.
"We got ourselves in position to win, but we couldn't make the shots when we needed them and they did," Gainer said.
JDCC will travel to Bay Minette to play Faulkner Monday.
At JDCC
Southern Union 47 50 – 97
JDCC 36 53 – 89
SOUTHERN UNION (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Young 9-0-3-21; Perry 1-4-5-19; Dix 1-3-0-11; Holdway 1-3-0-11; Rivers 2-1-2-9; Stockdale 2-0-4-8; Hardrick 0-2-0-6; Anderson 0-0-4-4; Lilly 0-0-4-4; Jones 1-0-0-2; Hayden 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 18-13-22-97)
JDCC (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Coleman 14-1-11-42; Foster 2-4-2-18; Foster 2-0-1-4-18; Drakeford 1-1-0-5; Dickinson 1-0-1-3; Montgomery 1-0-1-3 (Totals: 21-6-29-89)