After winning only two of their previous eight games, the Jamestown Community College men's basketball team enjoyed a 34-point victory on Thursday night.
After leading by 16 points at halftime, the Jayhawks rolled to an 85-51 win over the JCC-Olean Jaguars in an NJCAA Region 3 Division II game.
JCC moves to 13-14 overall and 4-8 in Region 3 Division II while JCC-Olean falls to 6-18 and 0-12.
But after taking on the worst team in Region 3 Division II, the Jayhawks now look ahead to playing the second-best team in the region and the 10th-ranked squad in the nation on Tuesday when they travel to Monroe CC.
''I'll worry about that next week,'' JCC coach Mike Cordovano said. ''It's been a long haul this semester.''
And the season.
''You look back and we started on October first, so I'm not going to get too excited to look to the next game for a while,'' Cordovano said.
JCC came into the game with 10 players while JCC-Olean had only six and one fouled out in the first half.
''I kind of feel for that team,'' Cordovano said. ''That game was not an indictment on J.R. Kemp's coaching ability He's a solid coach and he's done a great job for his school.''
JCC was also lacking a player, Davonte Dunham, who broke a bone in his left foot early in the last game at Niagara County CC and he is out for the season.
''It's sad that Davonte's done for the year because I thought he was a top five players in the region,'' Cordovano said about the freshman who is averaging 20.7 points per game. ''I hope the other coaches see that because I think he's deserving of being a first-team all-region player.''
Dunham's points weren't needed Thursday night as everyone played and scored for the Jayhawks, led by Tyreek Jewell with 21 points and nine rebounds. But Cordovano was more impressed with Jewell's defensive play.
''I think Henry is an excellent basketball player,'' Cordovano said about JCC-Olean's Katrell Henry. ''He's a big scorer in our league (20.4 ppg) and Tyreek held him to 11. Tyreek played both ends very well and that's why I played him the whole game. He played every minute of the game and he deserved that because he played that young man who got big points at their place and Tyreek shut him down to 11 points.''
Kenny Stokes had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Jayhawks while Omar St. John had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Michael Forrest chipped in with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Calvin Sterling had nine points and eight assists.
In the early minutes, the Jayhawks were leading only 10-9 and were fortunate to be in front because the Jaguars had missed numerous open shots.
Then the visitors began turning the ball over and JCC took off as it ran off 15 straight points for a 25-9 lead with 10 minutes left in the half. St. John had eight points in the run and three JCC baskets in the middle came off three straight JCC-Olean turnovers.
The Jayhawks eventually increased their lead to 18 with 3:15 left in the half and were in front by 16, 39-23, at halftime.
The Jaguars were down to five players for the remainder of the game after Terrance Johnson fouled out with 2:11 left in the first half.
With only five players to finish out the game compared to 10 for the Jayhawks, the hopes of a Jaguars' comeback were rather slim and JCC made sure they were impossible by going on a 22-4 run to lead 67-32 with 11:10 left. The Jayhawks coasted home from there as everyone saw plenty of action.
However, the action never got sloppy with the large lead.
''We can't get sloppy,' Cordovano said. ''Those guys like Jabbar Williams and Jobse Reyes, they practice so hard and don't play often and we would just cheapen their effort to this program by just running around and throwing up shots. We made sure that we played right to the end.''
He added, ''Their zone gave us a lot of shots. I was disappointed that we shot too quick because the shots were there. I just wanted us to move the ball a little bit and maybe we could get something inside, but we shot quick in the first half. The second half we settled down and we got the ball around and we shot a higher percentage.''
JCC-Olean's leading scorer was Terrance Johnson with 15 points.
JCC's game at Monroe on Tuesday is at 8 p.m. Monroe is 22-3 record and two of the wins were at JCC by scores of 74-59 and 90-85.
JCC-OLEAN (51)
Henry 5 0-0 11, Kalaw 4 1-2 9, Johnson 7 1-4 15, Henton 1 0-2 2, Lollier 2 1-2 7, Wongudi 3 1-2 7, Totals 22 4-12 51.
JCC (85)
Walker 1 0-1 2, St.John 6 0-1 13, Reyes 2 0-1 4, Newell 0 2-2 2, Jewell 7 4-7 21, Forrest 5 0-0 11, Bentham 2 0-0 4, Stokes 7 1-2 17, Williams 1 0-0 2, Sterling 4 0-4 9, Totals 34 7-18 85.
Halftime-JCC 39, JCC-Olean 33. 3-point goals-Henry, Lollier 2, St. John, Jewell 3, Forrest, Stokes, Sterling. Total fouls-JCC-Olean 20, JCC 15. Fouled out-Henton.