The Wallace Community College Patriots got down early, but were able to come back and win 65-60 at the Concordia College Hornets on Tuesday in an exhibition game.

Foster Davis, head men’s basketball coach of Wallace Community College-Selma, said he was proud of his team being able to maintain its composure to get the win.

“I think we came out for a first game a little nervous. They took the lead by maybe nine or ten points,” Davis said. “But we settled down eventually and played our kind of basketball. I was real proud of the guys.”

Demarrio L. Brown, head men’s basketball coach of Concordia College Alabama, said the Hornets didn’t get it done defensively on the night.

“Defense was very poor and we had missed free throws. You can’t play to please the crowd, you’ve got to play the ball that you know,” Brown said. “We beat ourselves tonight by not being on defense boxing out, doing the simple things and fundamentals. We’ll get better as the days go by.”

After trailing by more than ten points early, Wallace stormed back to take 31-28 lead into halftime.

The Hornets threatened late when Travis Rosco scored on a layup that made the score 54-50 in favor of the Patriots with 5:40 left to play.

But Wallace’s D’Vante Mathews responded with a jumper that pushed the lead back to 56-50.

Wallace extended its lead to 60-54, until Concordia’s Jeremy Sturdivent drained a 3-pointer and made the free throw after being fouled during his shot to make it a 60-57 game with 2:40 left to play.

Mathews hit a pair of free throws and Patrick Jackson hit a jumper for the Patriots to help put the game out of reach and secure the victory.

The Hornets and Patriots will play again on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at Wallace in a regular season game with tip off for the women’s game at 5:30 p.m.