A late fourth quarter rally was all that stood in font of the Charles Henderson Trojans and its fifth win of the season.

The team played host to the Jeff Davis Volunteers on Friday night, thanks to poor free throw shooting and turnovers, let the Volunteers walk out of CHHS with a 44-41 victory.

“Bad decisions really hurt us when the game was on the line,” head coach Carl Hollis said in the team’s locker room following the game.

“The same thing happened to us against Greenville – this time around we couldn’t hold the lead.”

The Trojans had a five-point lead with less than five minutes remaining in Friday night’s game.

“We beat ourselves on the free throw line and on turnovers,” Hollis added.

The loss drops the Trojans to 4-3 on the season, and also handed the team its first loss at home.

The team had 19 turnovers in the game and shot just 61 percent from the charity stripe, making 13 out of 21 free throws.

“With the game on the line, you can’t turn the ball over,” the coach said to his team after the loss. “We gave this one away.”

Jeff Davis hit nine of its 15 free throws in the fourth quarter, one fewer point then CHHS had with 10.

As a whole, the team shot just 34 percent from the field, making 12 of 35 from the floor, and .08 percent from behind the arc, shooting one of 12 from the 3-point line.

“This is a set back for us in my eyes,” Hollis said.

“We have a lot of wrinkles to iron out and we are going to do so over the break to help us get prepared for the rest of the season.”

The Trojans next game is not until Dec. 20, something Hollis is not happy about.

“That’s too many days off for a basketball team – but we are going to do our best to be ready.”

As far as what the coach and his players will be working on during that 15-day layoff, Hollis said a number of things.

“We are going to try and get into better shape. We are going to work on both sides of the ball [offensively and defensively] and try to get into our kid’s heads to make better decisions,” he said.

Leading the way for CHHS was junior Mike Zackery, who finished with 14 points.

Forwards Justin David and Jabari Brown also added nine and eight points, respectively.

“We didn’t get a lot of movement on the ball and our guards didn’t handle the ball like they are supposed to – it was not a good game for us,” Hollis said. “We have got to change how we are playing right now.”

Hollis said after the game that this is not where he believes his team should be at this point in the season.

“We are 4-3 and probably should be 7-0,” Hollis said.

“We have a lot of things to learn – but I expect to this team to keep working hard.

“Eventually, we will all be on the same page,” the coach added.