Lancers drop physical bout to Eagles 61-56

In their first game of 2024, the Lenoir Community College Lancers lost on their home court to the Wake Technical Community College Eagles. The Lancers last played on December 19th before taking a three-plus-week break for the holidays. In their return, the Lancers showed promising signs of continuing their dominance, but in the end, they fell in a very physical game.

Head Coach Matt Grantham was very disappointed with his team’s performance. “We didn’t come back from the break the right way. We didn’t prepare the right way, and we didn’t perform the right way,” Grantham remarked after the loss.

The Lancers led the Eagles 30-25 at halftime but saw their lead slip away in the first few minutes of the second half. The Lancers went on to be outscored 36-26 by the Eagles in the second half. In the loss, #10 Ray Mitchell led all Lancers with 15 points. #3 Trevion Lewis joined Mitchell as the only other Lancer to score double digits with 11 points.

The Eagles were led in scoring by #5 Ceejay Jordan with 17 points. Also coming off the bench for the Eagles was #14 KayJay Harper. Harper, a former Greene Central Ram, scored 7 points in what looked to be a homecoming for him. Harper had multiple family members, friends, former teammates, and former coaches in the stands for the game. Harper did leave late in the second half with an apparent eye injury but looked to be better after the game was over.

Looking forward, the Lancers will host Davidson-Davie Community College on Saturday, January 14th. This will be a tough game for the Lancers as they welcome the Storm, who are ranked #2 in the nation in the NJCAA Division 2 rankings.

The next two days, the Lancers will face tough practices as they look to rebound from their lackluster performance against the Eagles. “For the next two days, practice should be a war. It’s going to be a highly competitive practice. We must get better. It’s not who we are, and no one is proud of our performance tonight,” Grantham stated.