LEXINGTON — There was no blowout as Davidson County Community College basketball fans have been accustomed to on opening night, but there was much to be excited about for the future.

The Storm placed five guys in double figures and held off pesky Wytheville Community College for a 90-82 win in front of a good crowd at Brinkley Gymnasium on Sunday.

Rico Geter paced DCCC with 19 points, followed by 17 from Zack Williams, 15 from Justin Glover, 13 by Phillip Williams and 10 from A.J. Finney.

Starting and finishing well wound up being the key to the door that lead to the win. Davidson mounted a 24-12 lead midway through the first half, only to see it evaporate into a 34-30 halftime deficit.

The teams traded the lead 16 times in the second half, but strong play down the stretch allowed the Storm to pull away.

“We played pretty well in spurts throughout the whole game, but we played really well the first five and last five minutes of the game,” said third-year head coach of the Storm, Matt Ridge. “I am proud of how we stepped up down the stretch.”

DCCC seemed to be in control and waltzing its way to an easy afternoon, especially considering that 6’7” Chaz Brown of the Wildcats went to the bench with three fouls at the 7:31 mark of the first half, opening up the inside.

But the Storm had a lot of defensive breakdowns that resulted in easy scores for Wytheville. Kevin Cousin marched the Wildcats to the lead, hitting shots from all points on the offensive end. He tossed in a game-high 26 points, connecting on four-of-five attempts from beyond the arc.

WCC outscored DCCC 22-6 over the final eight minutes of the opening half to build the four-point lead.

“Some of our guys have some poor habits defensively and we are trying to break those,” said Ridge. “Rome wasn’t built in a day and I see a lot of potential on that end of the floor for us.”

The offense struggled during the stretch as well, and Ridge plans on correcting that as soon as possible.

“We made some poor decisions and that is more my fault than them,” said Ridge. “I don’t know how many turnovers we had but it was way too many. It was the simple things like concentrating on our passes and shot selection. We are going to go to work tomorrow at 4 p.m. and get rid of that.”

Davidson scored the first five points of the second half to regain the lead, but the see-saw affair heated up as the teams fought for every inch they could. A tightly called game by the officiating crew forced Ridge to substitute more than he would have liked, and the foul trouble took out two of DCCC’s starters with 3:07 to play and the Storm clinging to a 78-76 lead.

Williams and Finney each hit a pair of free throws, making the score 82-76. A layup by Wytheville’s Antoine Bryant and free throws from D.J. Cousin closed it back down to two with 52 seconds remaining, but that is all the Storm would allow.

DCCC went to a stall offense and executed it to perfection to wrap up its first win of the 2009-10 season.

Though Davidson got the win on this day, there are bigger challenges that await them in the coming weeks. Challenges that will not be as forgiving as the Wildcats were.

“The month of November is going to brutal, so we are going to have to get better in a hurry or we are going to lose some games in the near future,” Ridge said.

DCCC entertains the Louisburg College junior varsity team on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Sports Editor Zach Kepley can be reached at 888-3631, or at kepley@tvilletimes.com.