Hill Tallies Fourth Straight Game in Double-Digits, but Harford Men’s Basketball Routed by Allegany, 100-67

From the HCC sports desk:

BEL AIR, Md.—The Harford men’s basketball team put forth a valiant effort in the first half of play, holding visiting Allegany to just 37 points, while scoring 31 of its own, but allowed 63 points in the second half as it fell, 100-67, on Wednesday night at Susquehanna Center.

The Fighting Owls (6-12, 2-7 MDJUCO) never tied or lead in the contest, but came within one of the Trojans (10-4, 5-1 MDJUCO) on two occasions in the first half.

Sophomore Ian Hill (Richmond, Va./Douglas Freeman) tallied his fourth straight double-digit point game, totaling 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting, including 1-for-1 from three and 3-for-4 from the line, while grabbing six rebounds, blocking three shots and tallying two assists and steals each. Freshmen Lionel Perkins (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) and Jesse Volk (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) also reached double-digits, with 18 and 13 points, respectively, while five different Trojan players met or surpassed the 10-point mark.

Terrence Green led the way with 18 points or 7-for-9 shooting, including a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe, and added nine rebounds and four assists, while Aaron Brackett pulled down 12 boards and scored nine points while dishing out five assists. TJ Granger came just two rebounds away from a double-double with 14 points and eight rebounds on 6-for-11 shooting while tallying four steals.

The Trojans controlled the game early, jumping to a 4-0 lead at 18:49 and expanding that advantage to 13 points, 17-4, just over four minutes into the first half.

The Owls cut more than half of that lead off, however, with a 8-0 run over the next four minutes to make the score 17-12 in favor of Allegany with just under 12:00 to play.

After trading baskets three times in the next four minutes, the Owls saw themselves down 22-16 with 9:00 remaining in the half. A layup by Steven Shepp followed by a steal and fast break layup by Granger put the Trojans up by 10, 28-18 with 6:44 left before Malik Witten tacked on another layup to complete a 6-0 run and give Allegany a 12-point lead, 30-18.

Harford answered with a run of its own, though, sparked by a layup from Perkins which cut the lead back down to 10, 30-20, at 5:46. The Owls would add nine more unanswered points over the next 3:30 to complete an 11-0 run and cut the lead to one, 32-31, with 2:24 left in the period.

A layup by Nathan Herriott increased the Trojan lead to three, but freshman Chris Pappas (Fallston, Md./Fallston) answered with a jumper off Volk’s feed to bring the deficit back to one only to have Allegany add a layup and 3-pointer in the final minute to bring a 37-31 lead into the half.

The single digit lead would disintegrate early in the second half, however, as the Trojans scored nine straight points in the first three minutes to bring their lead up to 15, 46-31, before Volk netted a trey to give Harford its first points of the second half.

The Owls would cut the Allegany lead to 11, 52-41, with 13:33 remaining, but would come no closer as the Trojans outscored Harford 28-8 over the next 7:16 to build a 31-point advantage over the Owls, 80-49 with 6:17 to go.

Harford would flirt with the 30-point mark four times before the final buzzer, but ultimately dropped a 33-point decision to the Trojans, 100-67.

Allegany shot 60% from the floor in the second half, recording 24 buckets (24-40), which equaled the Owls’ offensive output for the entire game (24-58). The Trojans dominated in the paint, scoring 66 points to Harford’s 16, with their bench accounting for 53 points.

The Fighting Owls take to the road for only the fifth time this season on Saturday when they travel to Montgomery College-Rockville for a 4:00 p.m. game.

Newspaper Box Score
Allegany vs Harford
1/14/09 6:00 p.m. at Bel Air, Md.
At Bel Air, Md.
ALLEGANY 100, HARFORD 67
ALLEGANY (10-4, 5-1 MDJUCO)
Green, Terrence 7-9 4-4 18; Granger, TJ 6-11 2-4 14; Witten, Malik 4-7 2-2
10; Early, Jeff 5-11 0-0 10; Shepp, Steven 4-6 0-0 10; Herriott, Nathan 4-9
1-1 9; Brackett, Aaron 4-7 1-1 9; Burts, Ryan 3-8 0-0 7; White, Ru 3-7 0-0
7; Bassich, Dennis 1-3 4-6 6. Totals 41-78 14-18 100.
HARFORD (6-12, 2-7 MDJUCO)
Perkins,Lionel 7-18 2-3 18; Hill,Ian 6-7 3-4 16; Volk,Jesse 4-10 2-2 13;
Pappas,Chris 3-10 0-0 6; Dell, Gabe 1-2 2-2 5; Mead,Kevin 2-6 0-0 5;
Burgan,Troy 1-5 2-4 4. Totals 24-58 11-15 67.
Allegany 37 63 100
Harford 31 36 67
3-point goals–Allegany 4-14 (Shepp, Steven 2-3; White, Ru 1-3; Burts, Ryan
1-5; Early, Jeff 0-2; Bassich, Dennis 0-1), Harford 8-28 (Volk,Jesse 3-7;
Perkins,Lionel 2-8; Hill,Ian 1-1; Mead,Kevin 1-4; Dell, Gabe 1-1;
Burgan,Troy 0-2; Pappas,Chris 0-5). Fouled out–Allegany-None, Harford-None.
Rebounds–Allegany 57 (Brackett, Aaron 12), Harford 20 (Hill,Ian 6).
Assists–Allegany 21 (Brackett, Aaron 5), Harford 14 (Pappas,Chris 3). Total
fouls–Allegany 16, Harford 16. Technical fouls–Allegany-None,
Harford-None. A-78