The Tartan Pride men’s basketball team earned their first conference win 82-79, on the road against Edison Community College on Wednesday, Jan. 25.
The Pride rolled into the game winless in conference after losing two tough games — games that forward JaBriel Coaston said they could have won.
But coming into the game, Edison was also winless in conference, and Head Coach Jeff Price said he warned his team before the game of the opponent’s mindset.
“I told our guys, ‘They’re looking at you to get healthy,’” Price said.
Price said the game started out sloppy with both teams just muddling along.
“At the end of the first half JaBriel hit a huge three to put us up 4,” Price said.
That gave the Pride the spark they needed to get back on track in the second half. The Pride built up a 12-point lead only to see it vanish from a 9-minute cold streak.
“We had point-blank looks that kept going, in-and-out, in-and-out,” Price said.
Edison came back from the big deficit to actually take the lead Price said, but Sinclair pulled it back together with some clutch free throws.
“We made 11 of 12 free throws in the second half,” Price said.
Starting point guard Charlie Byers made all of his shots in fact, going 13-13 from the line/field.
Price said the final seconds of the game took a lot longer than usual, with the opposing coach calling multiple timeouts, trying to “ice the shooter.”
“He called at least three timeouts while Charlie was on the line,” Price said.
After the game, Sinclair was just happy to get their first win in conference.
“It felt good to get our first win,” Price said. “The first one is always the toughest.”
“A lot of people don’t think about this, but a lot of games come down to one possession,” Price said. “The shot made by JaBriel at the end of the first half and the free throws by Charlie are two primary examples of that.”
The leading scorers were Byers and Coaston both adding 23 points.
Subsequently, the Pride lost their next game against Lakeland 88-77 on Saturday, Jan. 28, but Price hopes his players will respond with some big victories down the stretch.
The next home game is Feb. 15 in a rematch against the Lakeland squad.