Freshmen making an impact for Eagles

Jacob Winston goes inside for a layup, but he’s shown the ability to deliver the long ball for TCC.
Photo courtesy TCC athletics.

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook staff writer

Mark White’s wish list for the Tallahassee Community College men’s basketball team is simple.
“The thing this team needs to work on the most right now is having a good balance between shooting threes and throwing the ball inside,” White said. “You don’t want to get too heavy in one area or the other.”

 
Then, he added: “Rebounds, rebounds, rebounds.”

 
Safe to say after watching the Eagles manhandle South Georgia Technical College 84-57 this past Saturday that TCC might just give White what he wants.

 
Freshman Jacob Winston nailed seven of 12 three-point attempts for most of his game-high 23 points, leaving him one shy of tying the Eagles’ single-game record. Another freshman, Jeremy Hayes, had the only three pointers for the Eagles, hitting three of his seven tries.

 
The Eagles were terrific on the board as well, taking down 50 rebounds to 37 for the Jets. Sophomore guard David Simmons had nine of those.

 
With the Eagles holding their biggest lead by 29 points, White turned to his reserves and all 12 players got minutes on the floor.
Hayes and Winston are two of eight freshmen on the team this season. Watching them against a South Georgia team that couldn’t find an answer after forcing a 4-4 tie early doesn’t answer all of the questions. However, it gave some indication just how good White’s team could become in his second year at the helm.

 
They’ve been impressive, not allowing more than 62 point in their three games, all victories.
“We are not going to let it go to our heads,” said Simmons, one of only two returning players. “We’ve got to stay humble.

 
“We’ve got a lot of freshmen and we still have to get used to each other. We have a lot of rebounders, a lot of scorers and a lot of athleticism.”

 
Winston demonstrated as much each time he took advantage of the Jets’ zone defense. He hit a few from the left and right sides and didn’t miss any of his three attempts from the top of the key.
But he acknowledged that he’s still learning White’s system just one year after playing high school ball in Montgomery, Ala.

 
“I just take smart shots and know when to take them,” said Winston, who came off the bench to play 24 minutes.