Harford Men’s Basketball Falls in Final Game at Susquehanna Center, 89-69 to Visiting Garrett

From the HCC sports desk:

BEL AIR, Md.—The Harford men’s basketball team snapped a two-game win streak, as it fell to visiting Garrett, 89-69, in the last men’s basketball game at the Susquehanna Center on Wednesday night.

The Fighting Owls (8-15, 3-10 MDJUCO) played their last contest of 41 years at the Susquehanna Center, due to the impending building renovations and improvements, slated to begin in September. The Lakers (17-4, 8-4 MDJUCO) snapped a two-game losing skid of their own with the commanding victory over the Owls.

Freshman Lionel Perkins (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) led the Owls with 20 points on 6-for-16 shooting, including 3-for-8 from behind the arc and 5-for-7 from the line. The game is Perkins’ second straight with 20+ points and fourth in the last five games. Freshman Jesse Volk (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) added 13 point, five boards, four assists and two steals on the night, while freshman Jasper Holleman (Richmond, Va./Matoaca) tallied a disappointing three points and fouled out in his first game back from injury. The appearance was Holleman’s first since Dec. 17 against Delaware Tech.

On the Laker side, Terrance Taylor led all scorers with 22 points on 10-for-12 shooting, while pulling down three rebounds and Jeffery Lewis was just two points from a double-double with eight points on 4-for-4 shooting and 15 rebounds.

The first half started off slow, with neither team putting a point on the board until over two minutes into the game, when Taylor connected on a layup from Lewis’ dish at the 17:47 mark.

Garrett would build their early lead to six points, before Perkins put the Owls on the board for the first time at the 15:17 mark with a three off freshman Troy Burgan’s (Akron, Ohio/North) pass.

Neither team would get too much momentum going for the majority of the half, with the Lakers building their lead to only eight on two occasions.

After Taylor added a layup for Garrett with 4:24 to play, the Owls saw their best offensive effort over the next 2:10, with two free throws from Volk, a free throw from sophomore Ian Hill (Richmond, Va./Douglas Freeman/Walters State), and a layup by freshman Gabe Dell (Parkville, Md./Parkville) to complete a 5-0 run and cut the deficit to two, 28-26 with 2:14 to go.

The teams would go back-and-forth for the next minute, before a Volk layup with just over a minute remaining put the Owls within three, 32-29. Those would be the last points that Harford would score however, as the Lakers ended the half on a 4-0 run to take a 36-29 lead into the half.

A layup by Rodney Clark on the first possession of the second half put Garrett up by nine, 38-29, but Hill answered with his first field goal of the game to take the deficit back down to seven, 38-31.

Two free throws by Francis Gunn just over a minute into the period gave the Lakers back the nine-point lead and Gunn would add a jumper a minute-and-a-half later to take a double-digit lead, 42-31 at the 17:20 mark.

Harford would come no closer than 11 points for the remainder of the game, and would see itself down by as much as 21, as the Lakers outscored the Owls 53-40, shooting 65% from the field in the second half on the way to the 89-69 victory.

Harford shot just 36.4% from the field for the game, converting on 24 of 66 attempts, while Garrett shot just under 60% and converted on 10 more shots, while shooting almost ten shots less than the Owls (34-for-57).

The Fighting Owls return to action on Saturday, when they travel to Arnold, Md. to face the Anne Arundel Pioneers for a 1:00 p.m. game.

Newspaper Box Score
Garrett vs Harford
2/4/09 7:00 p.m. at Bel Air, Md.
At Bel Air, Md.
GARRETT 89, HARFORD 69
GARRETT (17-4, 8-4 MDJUCO)
Taylor, Terrance 10-12 2-3 22; Gunn, Francis 5-11 5-7 15; Clark, Rodney 4-7
2-2 11; Koonce, Brian 4-8 2-2 11; Ibrahim, Doma 3-4 2-2 8; Lewis, Jeffery
4-4 0-0 8; Speicher, Chris 3-5 0-0 7; Agbaba, Marko 1-1 1-2 3; Siler, Reco
0-4 3-4 3; Dimitrov, Mihail 0-1 1-2 1; Ferguson, Howard 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
34-57 18-24 89.
HARFORD (8-15,3-10 MDJUCO)
Perkins,Lionel 6-16 5-7 20; Volk,Jesse 5-11 2-2 13; Burgan,Troy 3-9 4-8 10;
Hill,Ian 3-11 1-2 7; Pappas,Chris 2-6 2-4 6; Dell, Gabe 2-3 1-2 5;
Mead,Kevin 2-4 0-0 5; Holleman,Jasper 1-6 1-2 3. Totals 24-66 16-27 69.
Garrett 36 53 89
Harford 29 40 69
3-point goals–Garrett 3-11 (Clark, Rodney 1-3; Koonce, Brian 1-1; Speicher,
Chris 1-2; Siler, Reco 0-3; Dimitrov, Mihail 0-1; Gunn, Francis 0-1),
Harford 5-19 (Perkins,Lionel 3-8; Mead,Kevin 1-3; Volk,Jesse 1-5; Dell, Gabe
0-1; Holleman,Jasper 0-1; Hill,Ian 0-1). Fouled out–Garrett-None,
Harford-Holleman,Jasper. Rebounds–Garrett 49 (Lewis, Jeffery 15), Harford
21 (Hill,Ian 5; Burgan,Troy 5; Volk,Jesse 5). Assists–Garrett 16 (Clark,
Rodney 7), Harford 14 (Burgan,Troy 4; Volk,Jesse 4). Total fouls–Garrett
19, Harford 20. Technical fouls–Garrett-None, Harford-None. A-79