Vandy signee too much for Vikings

Station Camp's John Jenkins slams home two of his 33 points. (T-G Photo by Jimmy Jones) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

CENTERVILLE -- The Community Vikings stepped up a classification to take on Station Camp in the Hickman County Classic on Saturday in a game played in front of a packed house, including an NBA scout.

The Vikings played well for three quarters but were eventually overcome by a 33-point effort by Vanderbilt signee John Jenkins in their 68-45 loss.

The 6-foot-4, 175-pound shooting guard was every bit as good as advertised, even against a defense designed to rein him in with multiple players running at him all night long.

Community (7-4) held Jenkins, ranked by Rivals.com as the eighth best shooting guard in the country, to just 10 points in the first half and led a majority of the way behind the hot shooting of Wylder Norris and Dustin White.

The Bison benefited from a 3-pointer from Matt Johnson and got six points from Donya Burnett to nudge their squad out to a 28-20 lead at the intermission.

"We played with great intensity and rose to the challenge defensively in the first half," Community coach Jace Bryant said. "We challenged every shot and put some points on the board when we had the ball and then we came out after the break and completely lost our focus."

The scout in attendance got an eyeful in the third and fourth quarters as Jenkins took over the game to notch 23 points in the second half, including going 14-of-14 from the free throw line, and two monster dunks to turn the game into a rout despite a pair of 3-pointers from White.

"It was very disappointing to play as well as we did in the first half and then have a total breakdown defensively and allow the best player in the state to shoot layups the rest of the night," Bryant said. "We simply have to learn to play four quarters of basketball on a more consistent basis no matter who the opponent is.

"On the bright side, Wylder (Norris) and White (Dustin) shot the ball extremely well and I thought Cody Pierce played pretty good defense in trying to deny their guy the ball considering the size advantage he was giving up.

"We can learn a lot from this game tonight. We played hard and we played smart in the first part of the game. We played hard but not so smart in the second half and the results speak for themselves.

"Our guys need to decide which team they want to be the rest of the way."

Norris had 17 to lead the Community effort and White kicked in with 13, including three 3-pointers in the second half.

The Vikings continue tournament play at 5:30 on Monday against Watertown.