DANVILLE — Louisburg’s Ashton Ford wanted no part of watching Tuesday’s opening-round games at the NJCAA Division II National Tournament.

The 5-foot-10 sophomore came to Danville to play.

So when the Hurricanes took the court Wednesday morning, they were eager to play, maybe too eager.

Louisburg finally put all of the pieces together in the second half of its 88-65 victory over Grand Rapids Community College at the Mary Miller Gymnasium.

“We really didn’t want to watch ther other teams play, because we really wanted to play,” said Ford, who had 23 points and a game-high seven 3-pointers for the Hurricanes. “Now that we’ve got to play and got the victory — we’re trying to get three more.”

Jeremy Atkinson, who scored a game-high 26 and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds for Louisburg, pointed out the Hurricanes have been in Danville for three long days.

“We really haven’t been doing anything,” he said. “I came over and watched a game with coach yesterday.”

After a slow start, Ford and Atkinson combined for 13 points during the Hurricanes 16-3 run at the end of the first half, giving Louisburg a 50-36 halftime lead.

“They kind of slowed us down in the first half, but we picked it up at the end,” Ford said. “We rely on our press. We finally started putting good pressure on them and they started turing the ball over.

“That kind of fueled our run.”

Another contributing factor to the run was Grand Rapids was playing without leading scorer Jason Pratt. He picked up his second foul with 2:59 left in the first half and the Raiders (19-9) made just 1-of-4 shots and committed two turnovers in their final possessions of the first half.

“We took him out of the game and rolled the dice,” Grand Rapids coach Kelly McEwen said. “And that’s when they went on their big run.

“It’s hard to get back into a game against a team that handles the ball like they do when they get a double-figure lead.”

McEwen, who is part Irish, didn’t have the luck of the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.

“Not today,” he said. “Normally, we do a much better job in the half-court sets that we run. I think some of our players got caught up in the moment.

“We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we normally do, but that was because of the way they guarded us and I think part of the way we executed. We never got into an offensive rhythm.”

That wasn’t a problem for Ford, who after missing his first two shots went on to make 6-of-9 from the 3-point range in the first half.

“I just had to keep my confidence up, that’s what my coach has been telling me all year,” Ford said. “Everytime, I miss a couple, I get my confidence down. I had to keep it up to help my team out.”

Ford finished with seven 3-pointers and coach John Meeks didn’t think his sophomore guard was really on.

“He has games like that,” Meeks said. “I told some people that when he gets on, I think he can throw it into a thimble. The rim looks like a ocean to him sometimes.”

Joining Ford and Atkinson in double figures for the Hurricanes (29-5) were Shamel Akins with 11 and Fletcher Wynn with 10.

Pratt led Grand Rapids with 20, while Brad Whitby contributed 18 and Jake Thomas had 12.

Louisburg advances into tonight’s quarterfinal contest against Kirkwood, a 74-57 winner over Waubonsee, while Grand Rapids will play in today’s consolation bracket.