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By FRANKCASH
Herald-Whig Sports Writer
Gerrell Wells played only seven minutes in his
first home game with the John
Wood Community
College men's basketball team Wednesday
night.
Despite limited time on the court, Wells made an impression. Not to
mention giving the Trail Blazers an important boost.
With JWCC leading Spoon
River by two points
with less than five minutes to play in the first half, Wells dunked on an
alley-oop from from Jaris Wommack. That started
an 8-1 run to end the half as the Trail Blazers pulled away for a 69-51 MidWest Athletic Conference victory over the Mudcats at the Student Activity
Center.
Wommack got excited when he heard JWCC coach
Mike Elbe call out "Gumbo," the play designed for Wells' dunk.
"I knew I wouldn't be the one to catch the ball so I knew I'd
probably be throwing it up," Wommack said.
"It's a fun play and it helped liven things
up."
Wells, a redshirt freshman from Baton Rouge, La.,
was playing only his second game of the season after becoming eligible at
the semester break. Elbe says that play
could be identified by a number of names.
"He's from down in Cajun Country so we might call it 'Jumbalaya' next time," Elbe
said.
Regardless of the play's name, it helped the JWCC players put Saturday's
91-68 conference-opening road loss to Illinois Central behind them.
"We were ashamed and embarrassed after that one," Wommack said. "That was no way to start the
conference schedule."
JWCC (9-4, 1-1) had to bounce back without two of its floor leaders,
Brock Edris and Jared Summers, who were on the bench Wednesday night nursing
ankle injuries.
After taking a 30-23 halftime lead, the Trail Blazers turned to their
perimeter attack, making five 3-pointers in the second half. Justin
Reynolds sank two 3-pointers from in front of the JWCC bench 2:08 apart
early in the second half. Keenan Standbridge
matched Reynolds by draining threes on back-to-back possessions four
minutes later for a 47-35 lead.
"We've been working on our shooting," Reynolds said.
"That came in handy tonight. Jared gives us a lot of energy and Brock
comes up big with his defense and leadership. We tried to get a lot of guys
in the mix tonight."
Stanbridge led JWCC with 13 points, while Wommack scored 12 points, including a pair of
3-pointers. Reynolds finished with 11 points, while Standbridge
and Devon Frericks had five assists apiece.
JWCC plays a non-conference game at Forest Park Saturday before returning
home to play Lewis and Clark in a MWAC game next Wednesday.
Elbe hopes his team can play as solid defensively in its upcoming games
as it did against Spoon
River.
"Spoon River is as athletic a team as we will see in the
conference," Elbe said. "To hold
them to 51 points is pretty good. Take away a couple of transition baskets
I wasn't particularly happy about giving up, and that number is even
better.
"Anyone of about 10 guys we have on our team is capable of stepping
up and scoring 10 to 15 points any given night. That depth and balance came
in handy tonight."
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