Wilmington, NC - Cape Fear Community College men's basketball coach Ryan Mantlo used a comfortable second-half lead Saturday night to find coachable moments for his team.  Against visiting Central Carolina Community College, the moments featured everything from pushing his defense to boxing out opponents on free throws to constantly reminding his point guards to huddle up the players before free throws were taken.

In the meantime, his Sea Devils were on the way to a 73-58 win, a result that improved their record to 9-3.

"We're starting to understand how hard to play," Mantlo said. "Now we've just got to understand how smart to play. And if we can do that and just continue to compete, we're going to be pretty good."

Cape Fear's Faronte Drakeford led all scorers with 23 points. Teammate Anthony Williams posted a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Former Pender High School standout J.T. Murphy pulled down a game-high 12 boards for the Sea Devils, who outrebounded the Cougars 47-17.

Tim Haggie paced Central Carolina with 18 points and teammate Julian Harrington added 17.

Cape Fear used a 12-2 run to start the second half to build a 42-25 edge.

Both teams struggled through a very slow start. More than eight minutes in, Cape Fear led 6-5.

Later in the half, Mantlo turned on a half-court trap with his defense that ignited several turnovers and offensive opportunities. Back-to-back field goals by Terrance Hampton, the latter coming at the 3:40 mark, pushed the Cape Fear lead to 22-12.

The Sea Devils took a 30-23 lead into the break.

"We knew we wanted to pressure," Mantlo said. "They came in a little under-manned, so we wanted to try to speed up the tempo.

"We haven't run much of that half-court press, but it was very effective when we went to it tonight."

Courtesy of Tom Grady, Star News