Feb. 20, 2008
By Matt Daniels, Citizen Tribune

For the second time this season, the Walters State Senators got more than they bargained for when they battled Hiwassee on Wednesday at ‘Z’ Buda Gymnasium.

The No. 11 Senators rallied from an early second half deficit to claim the outright TJCCAA Eastern Division crown with a 90-82 victory over the pesky Tigers in the home finale for Walters State.

With the win, the Senators have now won a school record 24 straight games, and they stand at 27-1 overall and 14-1 in conference play. The loss dropped Hiwassee to 16-11 for the year and 6-9 in league play.

“It’s good to get this behind us and win the championship outright,” Walters State coach Bill Carlyle said.

“We have to feel pretty good about getting the conference title, but we really didn’t play all that well tonight. I don’t know what it was, but we had a difficult time with Hiwassee both times this year, and they came to play tonight.”

The Tigers were bolstered by the stellar outing of Josh Nofflett, who entered the game as the second leading scorer in the TJCCAA at just over 20 points per game.

Nofflett, who scored 19 points in a 74-64 loss to the Senators two weeks ago, had that total at halftime after dominating the first half of play.
Nofflett played all 20 minutes and nailed 7-of-9 shots in the half, including a 3-of-3 clip from behind the 3-point arc. One of those treys gave the Tigers a late lead in the half, and they held a 39-35 cushion at intermission.

“We didn’t do a good job of defending Nofflett in the first half, and most of the time it looked like we didn’t know where he was,” Carlyle said.“He was making everything he threw up, and he hit three big 3-pointers.”

Walters State was able to hang around behind the strong start by sophomore guard Freeman Pinkney, who scored 11 points in the first half while playing just under 10 minutes.

“Freeman got some open looks and knocked them down, and he helped us stay in the ball game,” Carlyle said.

The Senators would not take long to reclaim the lead in the second half, as a 3-pointer by Terrance Britt put Walters State on top, 42-41, with 17:24 remaining in the contest.

Hiwassee responded with a 9-2 run that was book ended by jumpers from Nofflett to give the Tigers their largest lead at 50-44.

A.J. Thomas fired back for the Senators with a personal seven-point stretch that sparked a 20-5 run that gave Walters State a 64-55 advantage with 7:49 left.

The Senators pushed the lead to 10 points on multiple occasions, but Hiwassee never went away.

The Tigers cut the deficit to 84-80 after three free throws from Emmanuel Colon, but a pair of free throws each from Thomas and Laquantis Stewart and a dunk by Michael Jenkins helped put the game away for Walters State.

The Senators shot 46 percent (29-of-63) from the field in the contest, and they took advantage of their trips to the free throw stripe by nailing 25-of-34 charity tosses in the win.

Stewart led Walters State with 22 points in the win while Thomas added 20 and Pinkney chipped in with 13 for the Senators.

Jenkins and Sirlester Martin each recorded a double-double for Walters State, as Jenkins had 10 points and 11 rebounds while Martin added 11 points and 15 rebounds in the contest.

Hiwassee shot 39.1 percent (25-of-64) in the game, and they connected on 11-of-24 from 3-point range. The Tigers also nailed 21-of-25 from the foul line.

Nofflett led Hiwassee with 28 points, Alex Goldston and Carl Taylor added 16 points each, and Colton Forrest tallied 10 points in the loss.
The Senators will return to the hardwood for the regular season finale when they travel to Lynchburg to take on Eastern Division runner-up Motlow State. Scheduled start time is set for 5 p.m.