Wranglers Take Down Trinity Valley with Strong Second Half

ARTICLE BY CHRIS AMAYA: ODESSA AMERICAN 

Daniss Jenkins and Garfield Turner stepped up when the Odessa College men's basketball team needed them against Trinity Valley Community College Wednesday at the OC Sports Center.

The Wranglers used a second-half surge to defeat the Cardinals 94-81 in their first game of the 2021 Wrangler Shootout.

It was also Odessa College's first home win of the season after playing its first seven games on the road.

Odessa College men's basketball coach Kris Baumann said his team was a step slow to start the game, but Trinity Valley gave itself an edge with the way its players were shooting the ball.

"Offensively they were really, really dialed in," Baumann said. "They shot the ball really, really well to start the game and kind of got us on our heels."

With the score tied at 15-15, Trinity Valley took control of the first half and put Odessa College in some uncomfortable spots.

At multiple points in the first period, the Cardinals got the best of the Wranglers by forcing them out of their defensive positions.

One of Trinity Valley's preferred methods of attacking included having Jakevion Buckley drive into the paint to draw defenders away from Dishon Daniels in the left corner.

Daniels made the most of his opportunities in the first half, scoring 14 points with four 3-pointers.

By the time the first half ended, with Trinity Valley leading 52-43, the Cardinals had three players in double-digit scoring.

Buckley and Quevian Adger recorded 10 points each to join Daniels.

"I was kind of happy just being down nine at the half because we could have got buried 15 or 17 and we kind of fought ourselves back in the half," Baumann said. "I thought we started the second half pretty good to make a run to kind of get us closer."

Jenkins and Turner combined for 25 points after halftime, giving the Wranglers the boost they needed to overcome the deficit.

Baumann was pleased with Turner's presence in the paint and around the basket, giving Odessa College a physical edge.

That was evident when 6-foot-8 forward pulled down an offensive rebound and followed it up with a dunk, then converted a jump shot to give his team a 77-73 lead with 5:26 left in regulation.

Turner finished the game with 14 points as the Wranglers outscored the Cardinals 51-29 in the second half.

Jenkins also made a big impact, posting an efficient 26 points on 8-of-12 shooting.

He also got his teammates involved throughout the contest, recording seven assists with no turnovers.

"That's an All-American type of game," Baumann said. "We need him to be our All-American and he's capable of doing that, but I'm very, very happy with him offensively tonight."

When he took the court, Jenkins said he tried to tell his teammates to play as tough as their opponent was playing.

He knew the expectations Baumann had for him coming into his first season with the Wranglers and he feels like having the extra motivation to be an All-American will help him as he moves forward.

"I like Coach putting pressure on me, that's what he did tonight," Jenkins said. "He was putting pressure on me to see how I was going to respond.

"We talked about that before I even came here, we talked about those expectations of me. I know what I've got to do every night."

Odessa College (6-2 overall) continues the Shootout against Ranger College at 7 p.m. Thursday at the OC Sports Center.

"Ranger is really, really good and they lost on a buzzer beater," Baumann said. "They've already beaten some teams in our league, so we have another tough one tomorrow."