Roadrunners lose to North Arkansas, split games at Moberly Classic

November 22 - North Arkansas College, Harrison, Arkansas

The Roadrunners lost a hard-fought 83-81 game to the North Arkansas College Pioneers. The back-and-forth contest featured 18 lead changes and eight ties.

North Arkansas led 41-36 at halftime. SFCC fought back and took a 78- 68 lead in the second half, but North Arkansas stormed back for the win.

"It was a good game that could have gone either way," said Roadrunners Head Coach Matt Brown. "North Arkansas made good plays down the stretch, and we didn't. We had a couple chances to win, and we didn't finish the layup or make the basket. We were up by eight points with four minutes to go. We have to learn how to play through tough situations."

Freshman guard Tazir Smith led SFCC in scoring with 21 points and a team-high five steals. Sophomore wing/forward Dalton Gayman contributed 16 points. Sophomore guard Jules Bikoy added 15 points and tied for the team-high with two blocked shots with redshirt freshman forward/center Jibril Ndiaye. Freshman guard Trey Jones scored 12 points. Freshman guard Elijah Bernstein dished out a team-high seven assists.

November - 25 Highland Community College-Illinois Moberly, Missouri

SFCC lost its first game in the Moberly Classic 64-46 to Highland Community College-Illinois. SFCC trailed 38-20 at halftime.

"We played good teams as usual at the Moberly Classic," said Brown. "Highland is a good team. The difference in that game was physicality. I think we learned a lot from that game because the physicality in that game is what we will face in Region 16. We had a pretty good second half, but we got in too big of a hole."

Gayman led the team in scoring with 10 points. Sophomore wing/forward Abou Wague led in rebounds with 11. Bernstein and Bikoy tied for the lead in assists with two. Bikoy led in steals with two.

November 26 - Richard J. Daley College Moberly, Missouri

SFCC (5-7) closed the Moberly Classic with a 73-48 victory over Richard J. Daley. SFCC jumped out to a 39-19 lead at halftime and never looked back.

Gayman led the team in scoring with 12 points, in rebounds with nine and assists with four. He tied with freshman guard Devon Ellis for the lead in steals with two. Redshirt freshman guard Christian Finley contributed 10 points. Ellis led in blocked shots with two.

"I think we played well against Richard J. Daley College," said Brown. "I like the sense of urgency we showed in that game. That's the big thing that I wanted to see from this weekend. I think Christian Finley had a career-high 10 points, so I was happy for him; he earned the chance to play. Nate Pericles also got to play some good minutes. I was happy about that as well."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics