On the board in the locker room underneath the scouting reports was scrawled a simple message.
Trailing 31-22 at halftime on Sunday, Santa Fe Community College basketball coach Chris Mowry erased everything on the board except for that one phrase. He pointed to the words and told his players, "This is what you forgot to do in the first half."
The message read, "Play harder than they do."
The Saints came out sluggish in the first half against Florida Community College at Jacksonville, missing easy layups and putbacks and committing careless turnovers. It was only on the strength of a last-second 3-pointer from freshman point guard Zach Trapp that the Saints trailed by nine points at the end of the half.
"We seemed dead for some reason," Trapp said. "We just needed some energy. We went into the locker room at halftime and Coach gave us a good talk, and we came back out fired up.
"He told us we just need to play hard. We're on a 12-game winning streak, and the reason why is because we've been playing so hard. We weren't doing that in the first half and that's why we were down."
Make that a 13-game winning streak.
The Saints came out inspired for the second half with much-improved defense. Trapp again provided the spark, sinking the game-winning 3-pointer in the final minute of play to propel SFCC (17-6) to a 56-53 win against FCC-J (10-15).
"Our team was struggling today to put points up, and I knew someone had to score," Trapp said. "Coach told me to go up there and shoot the ball with confidence, so when I was open, I was shooting."
Trapp led the Saints with 13 points, and freshman forward Jarrell Douglass also hit double digits with 10 points.
"He's a smart kid, knows how to play and obviously has very good 3-point shooting ability," Mowry said of Trapp. "Today we were struggling to find guys to score, and he stepped up."
The Saints scored the first basket of the game, but that would be their only lead during the first half as FCC-J took control both offensively and defensively. SFCC pulled to within 1 point with 5:59 to go before halftime, but FCC-J would go on a 15-4 run to close out the half before Trapp's last-second 3-pointer.
"We really didn't finish well inside," Mowry said. "Those shots in the paint, close range, we typically don't miss those, and that hurt us a little bit. I give FCC-J a lot of credit. They really guarded us defensively and changed up their defenses, and that slowed us down significantly."
Mowry also pointed to the Saints' defense in the first half and said that was another thing they talked about in the locker room. His team responded to that message as well, limiting the Stars to 22 points in the second half.
FCC-J had a chance to tie it at the end after a Saints turnover led to a three-point play, but the Saints' defense stepped up once again and guarded the perimeter to seal the game.
With the win, SFCC is now a perfect 6-0 in conference play and continues to hold the top spot in the Mid-Florida Conference.
"Hopefully we'll understand that when you're in first place, every team's going to be on top of their game and ready to go, and we have to be ready for the challenge," Mowry said. "It seemed like in the first half we weren't ready to step up and play against a team that was playing with full-on fire and energy.
"Give our kids credit, they found a way to come back and be successful in the second half, so hopefully we can learn from this."
